Stephon Marbury Starring In A Musical In China?!

In what SBNation.com calls "the best thing to happen to basketball and acting since Space Jam," former NBA point guard Stephon Marbury is currently starring in a musical about himself in China.

New Republic's Christopher Beam recounts the final scene of the performance, during which Marbury delivers the following speech to sum up the crux of the show: "I am Marbury. You are Marbury. We are all connected. I am a champion. You are a champion. But it was all yesterday. We will never stop working hard. We will never be satisfied. We will always keep moving on."

After each line of the monologue, a chorus of actors reportedly repeats Marbury's words in Mandarin.

Beam had the opportunity to sit in on a rehearsal for the show, and he described a scene in which Marbury announces, "I have one word for you guys: 'ding zhu!'" — which translates in English to "stand up!" — while throwing a fist in the air. At that point, everyone on stage begins to dance and dribble a bunch of basketballs while a heavy metal club track blasts in the background. 

Beam sat down with Marbury after the rehearsal and asked the "Lone Wolf" — or dulang — as he's known to his teammates, about how the show came to be.

"I had no role in the creative process," Marbury said, explaining to Beam that his manager, Yang Yi, came up with the idea for the show. "I thought it was cool. I thought it was something different."

In fact, he believes it's all part of his destiny.

"I look at this as all God's will," he said. "That's my reality and what I think and what I feel. I think this was all part of the destiny, part of the plan in my life. I feel I like I had to go through all the things back home in order to understand and accept all of the things that take place now."

Marbury is in the Asian country to play basketball for the Beijing Ducks, who he joined for the 2011-12 season. He's had so much success with the Ducks that he's even had a statue dedicated to him outside of the MasterCard Center.

Prior to his success in Beijing, he spent a year with the Brave Dragons in the city of Taiyuan but left after he didn't get along with the members of front office. In the United States, Marbury's NBA career was littered with feuds, ultimately leading to his decision to play overseas.

"Everything has changed since I came to China," he said. "You leave America, then you go someplace else, you begin to create something totally different."