Remember Stephon Marbury? Well, if you live in China then you probably can’t go too far without hearing his name or seeing it around town.
Marbury left the NBA in 2009 to embark on a journey to the Chinese Basketball Association that was still a relatively unknown quantity. But the 1996 first round pick has made that very league a worldwide brand.
And now, the 39-year-old, who plays for the Beijing Ducks will play the lead role in the film ‘My Other Home’, based on his life.
“I thought about doing a movie before, but never thought about it would be my own movie,” Marbury, who has won three CBA titles told China Real Time this week at a basketball court on the outskirts of Beijing, where the film was shooting.
“The whole situation is overwhelming, I am humbled by the fact that I had the opportunity to have this experience in my life.”
The movie is sure to highlight the highs of his NBA Draft selection and partnership with Kevin Garnett at the Minnesota Timberwolves as well as his rise to stardom in China to the lows of 2007, where Marbury plunged into a deep depression following the loss of his father while playing for the New York Knicks.
“It is actually difficult to shoot a film in Beijing nowadays,” Victoria Hon, the film’s producer and vice president of Beijing-based film studio Hairun Pictures said. “But the local government helps us a lot in facilitating shooting in venues where we otherwise would be not allowed to shoot.”
When asked the reasoning of why she decided to shooting the movie, Hon said: “Marbury’s story is different from most celebrities because he once fell down in the NBA. His story of how to stand up after falling down is very inspirational, and I believe it will resonate with audiences.”
