Stephon Marbury has spent the last five years of his basketball career in China. He has achieved success on the court and become a celebrity off it. Now, he’s getting his own stage play.
In the past three seasons, Marbury has dominated with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. This past season, he averaged 25.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 15 playoff contests en route to winning his second CBA championship in three years with Bejing.
As you can see by the highlights from this year’s CBA Finals, even at age 37, Marbury remains a very crafty offensive player:
Marbury has embraced the role of being a star in China. He has become so huge overseas that he got his own life-size bronze statue in 2012 after his first championship with Beijing.
Now, he’s getting a stage play devoted to telling the story of that first championship season in China.
Via Ben Sin of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard:
Yup, tickets for the production “I Was Marbury” officially went on sale yesterday. The play will cover Marbury’s life during the 2011-2012 Beijing Ducks season — when Marbury led the team to its first championship over the Aaron Brooks-led Guangdong Tigers.
The play’s director, Zhou Wenhong, told Chinese media that the main theme of the play will be “never give up” and will incorporate choreographed basketball moves with dance. Marbury, however, describes the play’s story in grander terms, saying in a press conference the play focuses on “Sino-US relations”.
Marbury will play himself in the production, but will only appear in a few scenes — the story apparently focuses on other Chinese characters who have been inspired by Marbury.
According to the production’s official website, the show will have a different guest star each night, including Yao Ming and former NBA journeyman Wang Zhizhi.
The most exciting part about the play are the guest appearances. The thought of Yao acting in a play has all kinds of potential, though I’m certain there will be some produce placement tie-in to his wine company. To be fair, we’ve seen Yao act before and he’s not that bad:
“I Was Marbury” will start on October 1st and run for 11 consecutive nights in Beijing.
We anxiously await the first full length review of this stage play.
What do you think?
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