Editor’s note: Holding down the post at DP Dot Com. 40 DIESEL drops knowledge about New York City sports legends… Word to JACK ROOSEVELT ROBINSON.
Let me start by saying I’ve had some tragic losses in my life, but I’ve never lost a parent. I can’t even imagine the loss one feels when the person that created and shaped you is no longer with you. I mean I never saw my father cry in my 30+ years until my dear grandmother passed last year at the age of 95. I will never forget the moment where I stood there in front of my entire family having to stop my own tears to help my old man deal with his own. That seminal moment made was a passing of the torch some what, but more importantly it taught me that my father prepared me well enough to stand as a man to the point where the student has to help the teacher carry on. I reflect on this moment and share it with you the reader in regards to the current state of my beloved sports franchise the New York Knickerbockers and their petulant “star”.
Brooklyn arguably lost its greatest basketball patriarch when Don Marbury Sr. died a few weeks back. Anyone who knows anything about NYC sports knows that Mr. Marbury consistently knocked out some of the greatest basketball talent Kings County has ever seen, and the name Marbury has been in the NYC sports pages since the mid-80’s. It was tragic to hear that one minute he’s enjoying watching his progeny in the world’s most famous arena to breathing his last breaths in the physical. So tragic that they kept it from Steph until the end of the game. Understandably the news devastated our mercurial point guard and Stephon took the time to mourn the huge loss. But after a few weeks I began to wonder if he was ever gonna come back or even worse – Is he milking this?
With out rehashing all the off court hi-jinks of 2007, you had to wonder where the owner of the Knicks, the president/GM/coach/HNIC/closet ghey Isiah Thomas, and our $100M homeboy all stood. Between the fights at 30,000 feet, random “suspensions”, and other mularkey, Knick fans have had to sit back, watch and wonder what the fuck was going on with this team. Considering their shitty record, the Knicks were like cRap music – the drama outside of the game was far better than the actual product. We fans had all become cynical of the clusterfuck and were waiting for someone to go all “NO MAS!” with us. Well I’m wondering if this has finally happened with Starbury losing his old man.
The parental deaths of sports figures have translated into some of the single greatest individual performances I’ve seen in the last few years. We all watched Jordan in 1993 giving his all after the tragic murder of his father James and just breaking down hugging the O’Brien Trophy exhausted on all planes. When Brett Farve’s dad died he went out on Monday Night Football and had a game for the ages (I was living outta state and made a verklepmt call to my old man to tell him I love and appreciate him after that game.) Who can forget Tiger winning his first major after Earl Woods passed and even the normally icy El Tigre couldn’t hold back the tears. I bring up all these moments to prove that even in the face of great tragedy these men found away to use their pain as a motivation and find a way to honor the men that made them. I don’t know if I can say that about Starbury. Whether it’s him “not being ready” or suffering “flu-like symptoms”, I don’t see that kind of gumption coming out of a kid who prides himself in being a hardscrabble kid from Coney Island.
So what you may ask is the problem? I think Steph was never really taught how to be A MAN. Stephon has always been a coddled basketball wunderkind who had the insulation of his brothers and basketball to protect him from all the ills of the world. Well in the pursuit of protecting the “family investment” no one took the time to foster the innate sense of manhood into the brother. Not manhood in the sense that he’s the financial cash cow for the next 4 generations of Marburys, but in the sense that he knows when to put the bullshit aside to be that hunter-gatherer that keeps everything in motion. Whether its reading about a 12 year old Marbury as a bratty Big Mac demanding kid in Darcy Frey’s “The Last Shot”, bitching his way out of KG’s Minnesota, the Jersey, and Phoenix pitstops, or pulling away in his $400,000 Rolls guffawing after admitting to his own indiscretions as well as his role in the cesspool that is the Knicks front office – Steph has never grown the fuck up.
For that I have to blame those around him that empowered him to carry on with such behavior and never said “NO!”. Steph may never be a champ because he doesn’t have that manhood in him that Jordan, Farve, & Tiger had in them. That greatness that lets them know that “He’s gone now, and it’s totally up to me to honor the legacy and his last name. To make everything he taught me until his last breath ring true for the world. THAT HE RAISED A MAN.” I don’t see that in Marbury, I see a scared kid who now can’t find his way in the world because he was never taught how to. And until I see something different I’ll look at him as such. But who knows, the Association’s season is still young and the East is wide open for those other 4-5 playoff spots, so maybe after some time and some Tussin, he can beat his blues and his flu.
However, if he’s not built for this grown man shit, then he should do us all a favor and take his remaining $40M and step the fuck off in those $15 kicks…
Word.
