Ask former NBA player Stephon Marbury about his experience playing in the 2004 Olympics and his answer may shock you. Ask him his opinion of head coach Larry Brown and you may have to brace yourself.
Marbury isn’t holding back.
During an interview with Wallace Matthews of Complex, Marbury told a story about the 2004 Olympics when head coach Larry Brown asked players such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson what their goals for the tournament were.
“By the time he got to me, everything was said that needed to be said,” Marbury says. “So I said, ‘Let’s also not forget that we need to have fun.’ And Larry goes, ‘Huh. Listen to this guy, talking about having fun!’
Marbury was embarrassed by Brown and would later describe the Olympic experience as ‘The worst 38 days of my life.’
The interview moved to Marbury’s continued experience with Brown, who went on the coach Marbury while the two were with the New York Knicks.
Brown was brought in by former Knicks president of team basketball operations, Isiah Thomas.
“I begged Isiah not to bring him to the Knicks,” Marbury told Matthews (h/t Bleacher Report). “It was just unbearable, man. Nobody wanted to play for him. The whole energy was terrible. But it was the environment he wanted. Misery.”
The story went on tho document Marbury’s falling out with the Knicks, a team that MArbury had wanted to play for since he was a kid, his exodus from the NBA and his explosion onto the Chinese Basketball Association where he has made himself an icon after two initially disappointing stints with the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons and the Foshan Dralions.