Stephon Marbury was so depressed in 2009 that he considered ending his life.
In an interview with HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” the former first-round pick of the Timberwolves opened his internal doors to explain a dark period of his life that surfaced following the death of his father, the end of his NBA career and the collapse of his shoe company.
Here’s a breakdown of what Marbury said, according to the New York Daily News.
“Marbury tells Real Sports’ Bryant Gumbel that there were times during that period when he “wanted to die. I wanted to kill myself some days. I did. … It wasn’t about basketball. It started to become about me. Because I was that depressed and I was that sick.”
He says as his shoe company began to fail, he saw himself “basically losing life slowly. And I was watching it. And I think that was hurting me more than seeing my basketball career going in the direction that it was going. I was trapped in my thoughts. I was trapped in how I felt about how I felt I was being treated. I was trapped with decisions that I made.”
https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/557550989180678144
Marbury – now an icon in the Chinese Basketball Association playing for the Beijing Ducks – said his life began to spiral out of control after his father, Don Marbury, Sr., passed away in 2007. Just two years later his NBA career came to a unheralded end with the Boston Celtics. Not long after, his shoe company, “Starbury,” folded.
The interview will air in its entirety Tuesday at 9 p.m. CT.
An article on Rant Sports says Marbury should be “encouraged and embraced” for showing the courage to talk about his mental health issues.
The episode also recounts the strange video Marbury posted in 2009 in which he ate Vaseline.
But how times have changed. Marbury was recently honored by the Beijing government, who declared him a “role model.”
It's bigger then basketball. God is great!!! pic.twitter.com/1T95jNxMEa
— I AM PEACE STAR (@StarburyMarbury) January 7, 2015
Marbury, now 37, was drafted fourth overall by the Timberwolves in 1996. After 3 1/2 seasons in Minnesota he was traded to the Nets; a move that Wolves owner Glen Taylor said they were “forced into,” according to Philly.com. Ten days prior to being traded, Marbury turned down a six-year contract extension from the Wolves.
