It’s been almost a decade since Stephon Marbury put Michael Jordan on blast, blaming MJ and his shoe company for seemingly causing multiple deaths each year. Well, the New York legend recently rekindled the Jordan-Marbury beef by doubling down on his statement about selling more sneakers than Michael himself, a controversial take that landed him in trouble the first time around.
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While appearing on ‘7 PM in Brooklyn’, home-town legend, Stephon Marbury went in on his beef with Jordan and other “luxury” shoe companies. A product of the hood himself, Marbury argued that the tactics employed to produce and market these kinds of sneakers have had dire effects on the young population of the neighborhoods, naming ” violence” and “jealousy” as definite byproducts of the sneaker culture.
Marbury wanted an affordable sneaker for the masses, so he made one himself, naming his shoe line “Starbury” in the process. Marbury stood true to his promise, as he launched a $15 shoe back in the fall of 2006, a move that drastically affected shoe sales for top companies. Recalling his achievements on “7 PM in Brooklyn”, Marbury pointed to his “family-oriented” values as being the reason for his success,
” I did Starbury. I did more numbers than Michael Jordan selling shoes. During this time, when you talk about enlightenment, I was having out-of-body experiences because I was seeing Black Parents who looked like me, who didn’t have ideal situations, where they couldn’t afford to buy shoes, leave spending 200 dollars, walking out with like 10 bags.”
For Marbury, it was never about selling shoes but creating “access” to facilities at an affordable cost. While Marbury explained his stance, a long-time member of Jordan Brand, Carmelo Anthony, was curious to know if Marbury had changed his stance on the Nike-affiliated brand since his 2015 Twitter outburst against the company. Answering honestly, Marbury said,
” No I am not in agreement with selling shoes for this amount of dollars and kids get killed for them…Once it happened one time, that’s it. That’s my stance.”
From the looks of it, the 3-time CBA champion hasn’t gotten over the shammy tactics adopted by top sneaker companies. Furthering his efforts in this direction, Marbury even recently restarted his previously discontinued line, but this time around Starbury’s doesn’t seem to be a worthy rival to the Jordan Brand, even tanking in sales as compared to its Nike-affiliated rival.
Stephon Marbury has great respect for Jordan as a basketball player
Back in 2015, Stephon Marbury was still playing in China. The Brooklyn legend had been out of the league for some time now, with him and his shoe line both leaving the country in 2009. But after a few years abroad, Marbury wanted to re-launch the ‘Starbury’ line, a preparations for the same went forward full-steam.
In a marketing push, Marbury started to put out Tweets, discrediting other shoe brands for their shortcomings. It was during this time that the 2-time All-Star put out his “infamous” tweet where he labeled Michael Jordan as a ” profiteer” whose shoes have been “robbing the hood” of money and sparking violence for decades.
Jordan has been robbing the hood since. Kids dying for shoes and the only face this dude makes is I don’t care. The time will change!
— I AM PEACE STAR (@StarburyMarbury) October 5, 2015
While Marbury continues to hold his opinion almost a decade later, his admiration for Jordan’s game never took a hit. Talking about the “Goat” debate with sports broadcaster/analyst Brandon Robinson, Marbury declared Jordan to be in a league of his own, with others trailing way behind,
” People wanna rank Jordan? Jordan shouldn’t even be ranked. It should be Kobe, then LeBron and then you can pick guys after that. There’s just no comparison, man.”
Navigating Marbury’s love-hate relationship with Jordan has undoubtedly been fun. The CBA legend has no qualms about his hot take, and Jordan hasn’t made a single comment, but No. 23 definitely took notice. Well, anyone would, as Marbury sold over 4 million sneakers during his small stint with the company. Still standing as one of the only men to compete with MJ in the sneaker space.
