Marbury digs deep

Knicks star pledges $500,000 to $1M for hurricane relief and breaks down speaking of anguish for victims

BY STEVE ZIPAY STAFF WRITER September 7, 2005

Stephon Marbury, sobbing as he spoke about hugging his children and about his sense of despair while watching footage of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, yesterday pledged to contribute between $500,000 and $1 million to the relief effort for the Gulf Coast.

At a midtown news conference organized by the NBA Players Association, which upped its pledge to Feed the Children to $2.5 million, the Brooklyn-born Knicks guard was supposed to announce his personal donation to the relief efforts. But he broke down on the podium before completing his remarks.

"I see the kids," said Marbury, his voice cracking, "and I just think about my kids. You see babies floating in the river. We complain about the littlest things. I mean, we're so fortunate for so many reasons; we can breathe, we can walk. It's not even about money. It's more about everybody's responsibility. This is about how you treat people. To see this every day, you know that this is going on and you got people, they don't care about it. "

Marbury has three daughters and an infant son. "My kids," he said, wiping his eyes, "you don't think about nothing else. You just hold them so tight and you just look at them and they don't even know why you're looking at them like that and they wonder why you're crying."

As Hunter, other NBA players and a small group of journalists listened in silence, Marbury said, "The money that I'm giving," but began crying and sat back down on the dais. He remained there, head bowed, with a hand covering his face, for another 20 minutes. Billy Hunter, the NBPA's director, consoled Marbury with a pat on the shoulder and revealed Marbury's pledge, the largest by any NBA player.

Fellow Knick Allan Houston also attended. "When you see something like this and drive around in your car and walk around your house, it's like Steph said, you almost feel guilty because people 10 hours from here have lost everything," Houston said. "We're supposed to do this from our heart." On Aug. 30, as part of Operation Rebound, the NBPA made a $100,000 down payment and pledged at least $1 million to Feed the Children, the Oklahoma City charity that is trucking in water, food and supplies.

The $2.5 million will match what the NBPA donated to the relief effort after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Hunter said yesterday.
The $2.5 million will come from the union's coffers and won't include donations from individual players to the Red Cross and other organizations, Hunter said. Among players who have written checks: Kobe Bryant (Lakers) and Alan Henderson (Mavericks), $100,000 each; Baron Davis (Warriors) $60,000 and Chris Duhon (Bulls), $30,000.

As of yesterday, 89 trucks provided by Feed The Children have made deliveries to displaced families in six states and another 30 are on the road, co-founder Larry Jones said yesterday. NBA players will help distribute food from the trucks next week, Hunter said.

About 35 NBA players will play a charity game in Houston next weekend, said Hunter, who said the players would continue contributing through the season.
Purvis Short, the NBA's director of player programs in Houston, visited Mississippi with the Feed the Children caravan and walked through neighborhoods where bodies were amid the rubble.

"This has to be a long-term effort," Short said. "It's the worst thing you could ever imagine."

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

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