Stephon Marbury, Beijing Honorary Citizenship holder: Love is Love

Stephon Marbury, Beijing Honorary Citizenship holder, Former NBA and CBA Star

This story is about a New Yorker in Beijing, about a second chance in life, about love. Hi,I'm Stephon Marbury I play basketball for 22 years I came to Beijing in 2012 and I have been currently living in China for the last eight and a half years. I had the image of Beijing being this huge big city based upon what people say a lot of lights, a lot of flash, it was exactly that but I also have my imagery of it being a place like Washington D.C.as opposed to it being like how shanghai is more like a city international feel and Beijing is a mixture of that feeling Now it is evolving into like this city and this place that is really becoming a magic on earth. Look at the CCTV building and then there's a new building that's been built I mean I’ve watched that building go from where there was nothing there, and you wonder how they build that so fast, like I live in America, that project will take ten to fifteen years. I haven't taken the subway in America in a long time, that sounds crazy, I've taken the subway in China more than I’ve taken the subway in America and I live twenty blocks from the subway, you can see the growth and development right there, how the train system is running completely different than how it was running years ago and now people get to utilize the train, so you stop pollution, you minimize traffic jams, so all of these things that're happening in Beijing, I mean it's all positive and I'm a part of it when you see that you know you're in another place, you see how fast the economy is growing, and coming to Beijing, I feel like you know going through all I went through and being able to play basketball here and winning championships and a statue and a museum I mean at my age, I was completely aware of what was happening. I knew this was my chance. That summer, I trained as hard as I could.I gave everything I had just to see what I could pull out I wanted to see if that really could happen to myself, to see if I could pull everything that was inside me out, and I did. I played two of best games that I ever played in my whole entire life. Two back to back games, fifty fifty I never did that before. China has given me an opportunity to play basketball again. Beijing, you let me become someone that I never dare to think that I could become, and let me relive the deep love that I never dare to think I deserve. You gave my life a chapter that it’s a dream. In this chapter, I achieved my dream and my promise. I can never ever repay Beijing, I can never repay China for showing me the love that they showed me for embracing me the way how they have embraced me for giving me a platform to not only showcase my skills as a basketball player but giving me a voice for people to actually hear me speak and talk and actually listen. Like I always say, Love is love.