Former Georgia Tech and NBA star Stephon Marbury recently appeared on a television show. Brooklyn 7 p.m.a podcast hosted by former Syracuse basketball player Carmelo Anthony.
In this episode, Marbury discussed his admiration for Syracuse's basketball program and why he ultimately decided not to attend college.
“I was going to go to Syracuse even before Syracuse knew I was going to Syracuse,” Marbury said.
However, a home visit with longtime C's head coach and Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim did not go as planned, and Marbury was forced to look elsewhere, with his family present.
Five minutes into the meeting, Mr. Boeheim told Mr. Marbury:
Suddenly, the Marbury brothers leave the room in disgust, leaving Stephon sitting on the couch confused about what to do next.
“That wasn't what I wanted to hear…It wasn't what my family wanted to hear,” Marbury admitted. At the time, Marbury was New York's Mr. Basketball and a top-five player at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York.
“I was shocked because I was the number one new employee at the time,” Marbury explained.
The Coney Island native believed the love between him and Jim Boeheim was one-sided when it came to recruiting. “I wanted to go to Syracuse more than he (Boeheim) wanted me to go to Syracuse,” Marbury said.
The next day, Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Cremins visited Coney Island and met with some of the nation's top high school point guards. Unlike Boeheim, Cremins promised Marbury that he would “give him the ball and let him do whatever he wants.”
Cremins not only gave the ball to the Coney Island native, he took it and ran with it.
Marbury averaged 18.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in his freshman season at Georgia Tech. He helped lead the Yellow Jackets to the 1996 Sweet Sixteen, where they lost 87-70 to the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Despite losing Marbury, the Orange advanced to the national championship game without Marbury, but lost 76-67 to the Kentucky Wildcats.
Later that year, Marbury was selected fourth overall in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, but was later traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for college standout Ray Allen.
Almost 30 years after that home visit, Marbury is being considered for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Don't be fooled by Marbury's NBA resume alone. His accomplishments in the Chinese Basketball Association could be the difference in Marbury's Hall of Fame case.