Stephon Marbury To Do Big Business in China With 'Starbury'?

Stephon Marbury has often been in the news for infamous antics. Could a series of business moves in China be yet another strange decision from a basketball star known for shocking activities? Sbnation.com reports:

If you thought Marbury was just playing in the basketball backwater that is the Chinese pro league because NBA clubs blackballed him following his bizarre breakdown last summer on UStream, think again. Marbury is over there to become a Global Icon (taking notes, LeBron?). Making moves. Hustling.

After all, as Marbury explained, over 350 million people in China play basketball, and China just recently surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest economy. You do the math. That's a lot of sneakers, as Starbury told the New York Post:

"The NBA has deals to build arenas in China. It just takes time. Owning and investing there, how can I go wrong business-wise?"...

After initially balking at re-signing with his Shanxi club unless they offered him $2 million, Marbury will return after the team promised to help get his nascent sneaker business off the ground in the Middle Kingdom.

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In a rather innovative self-marketing move, Stephon Marbury is not looking to earn major endorsement dollars from a huge sporting goods company. He would rather make his Starbury line into a hot new billion dollar brand on his own. By parlaying his stardom in a gigantic nation like China in tandem with the development of his own stores, Marbury is truly poised to make billions.

China is definitely one of the most important countries in the world in terms of the future of global economic development. Stephon Marbury is smart to take a "first-to-market" approach with his Starbury line in one of the biggest markets in the world. Plus, the consumer base in China is growing exponentially compared to the slowing economic markets in the west. If Marbury wasn't famous for being incredibly unpredictable -- to say the least -- it would be easy to brand his business acumen as pure sports marketing genius. But, because of the severely disturbed nature of his past behavior, it's best not to make any snap judgements about Stephon Marbury's potential for business success in China.

Only time will tell whether Stephon Marbury's Starbury line will be a hit in China. But we wish him the best, and definitely commend Stephon for coming up with such an amazing idea. It takes crazy courage to turn a downward turn in one's career into a possibly lucrative comeback.