A Kid from Coney Island tells of the early success, glamor, failures and rebirth of Stephon Marbury and his lifetime basketball odyssey.
Every basketball superstar who has made it big as a professional had grand hoop dreams as a child. Stephon Marbury is no different, but his basketball journey was far from conventional, as can be seen in the documentary A Kid from Coney Island.
Directors Chike Ozah and Coodie Simmons (Benji, The First To Do It) combine to take a deep dive into Marbury’s remarkable life and professional basketball career. A Kid from Coney Island examines Marbury’s magnetism as a high school phenom and the wavering tangents he traveled, which eventually led him to play ball in China.
Marbury is unique because he didn’t live out the fairytale NBA career as some of his contemporaries like Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Marbury enjoyed periods of success in the NBA but also became a pariah with a reputation for being a selfish player who alienated teammates. This documentary helps tell Marbury’s side of the story, which hasn’t received much attention until now.
Marbury is the youngest of a large family. Many of his older brothers were prominent Coney Island basketball players in their own right who made it to major college programs but never achieved entry into the NBA. The pressure to make it to the league fell on Marbury’s shoulders, and he handled that weight like an expert.
After one year at Georgia Tech, Marbury was the fourth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. After a trade, Marbury starred alongside his friend Garnett on the Minnesota Timberwolves. In a perfect world, Marbury’s story would have played out from there with years of dominance and NBA titles, but his story isn’t about perfection. It’s about resilience.
The business side of professional basketball weighed on Marbury and made him move on from the Timberwolves. He had stints with the Nets, Suns, Knicks, and Celtics, where he played well but was often portrayed by some organizations, coaches, and the media as a malcontent. From the outside looking in, it would be easy to dismiss Marbury as a superstar athlete with a big head, full of arrogance, who’s unable to work well with others, but Marbury is given a voice in this film.
When things hit a breaking point between Marbury and his hometown New York Knicks, his psyche and love for basketball also started to crack. The loss of his father compounded his depression, and for a while, he seemed lost.
With his reputation in tatters, he was offered a contract for the veteran’s minimum, which was an insult. Most people in Marbury’s position would have seen exile from the NBA as the end of their basketball careers, but Marbury didn’t acquiesce.
In 2010, Marbury decided to continue his professional career in China. Today, several big-name NBA players have traveled oversees for more lucrative contracts than they would receive stateside. Marbury was the trendsetter, but he didn’t know how his decision would play out. It turns out that his move to China secured his legacy as a basketball great.
While he didn’t know what to expect in China, Marbury found a country that accepted and loved him with open arms. His name was getting torn apart by the U.S. media, but China offered him a fresh start free from preformed stigmas. Marbury embraced Chinese culture and flourished as a basketball player, winning three CBA National Championships.
Although Marbury’s pilgrimage to China is a small part of the documentary, it signals a turning point in his life. He let go of the pressure, expectations, and bitterness left over from the tail end of his NBA career and improved himself physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Marbury’s sister says it best in the film: “You can fall from grace, but you can also get back up and rise.”
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Ultimately, that one line sums up the lesson to be learned from Marbury’s basketball career that this documentary embodies. Several times throughout the end of the film, Marbury shows his admiration for Bruce Lee and his philosophical perspective.
Lee once said, “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water. Now, you put water in a cup it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
Marbury lived these words throughout the second act of his career, and they allowed him to conquer internal and external obstacles in life. A Kid from Coney Island reminds us that there is no such thing as a perfect ending. Instead, it’s up to us to adapt to life’s impediments and remain persistent even in the face of doubt.
A Kid from Coney Island makes its theatrical debut in limited release on Tuesday, March 10.