It’s easy to look at Stephon Marbury’s first game for the Shanxi Zhongyu and claim his arrival a failure, as some of his Chinese fans have hastily concluded. In 28 minutes of play, he had 5 fouls, went 0-6 from beyond the arc, let his defensive assignment drop 34 points and 5 dimes, and ended up losing to the 15th place Dongguan Marco Polo.

But how about we focus on the positives? 7-11 from the field, 4 steals, 15 points, and the right play down the stretch when he unselfishly set up the team’s leading scorer and hot hand Maurice Taylor for a chance to win the game. In fact, Marbury even went on to apologize for his team’s loss and promised a brighter future:

“I’m sorry about the game last night. I wish we would have won for you guys. I will get better every game, I promise. I hope all is well with you guys and thanks for the support last night.”

It’s hard to criticize Marbury in this case – he has taken a lot of time off basketball, is clearly not at 100% yet, and must be experiencing some serious jet-lag and culture shock. Nevertheless, he went out and played as well as he could, made no excuses, and comforted the fans… it’s almost as if he’s ready to embrace the role of, might I say….*gulp*… a franchise player!

Marbury’s next game will be on February 3rd against the Guangdong Southern Tigers who stand at the top of the CBA currently with their impressive 17-1 record. It should be Marbury’s first appearance on national television, and it will surely be an interesting one to watch.

The CBA…where Marbury happens!