Former NBA point guard Stephon Marbury was part of the legendary 1996 NBA draft, wherein a host of future All-Stars and Hall-of-Famers were in the pool. He was selected fifth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks and later traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for co-draftee Ray Allen. If you can remember, he had a memorable post-draft interview as he was overcome of finally fulfilling a childhood dream.

In Minnesota, Marbury was quick to show his potential and immediately formed an exciting, young tandem with then-second year forward Kevin Garnett. They stirred the franchise into its first playoff appearance that season, and did it again in the following year.

Though the Wolves got bounced in the first round on both occasions, the high potential of their partnership was clear. The good uptick in numbers on basically every category from their first unto their second season together heightened the hype too.

However, 18 games into the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, everything went into a screeching halt as Marbury was shipped to the New Jersey Nets.

There was never a clear answer as to why he left the team so prematurely. The rumors that maybe his fiery personality didn’t mesh well with the team and the management, or that the front office wanted change because of the consecutive first-round eliminations.

All that got cleared up this week when he touched on the subject during an interview with Heavy.com:

“I grew up in New York in the melting pot where there’s Black, White, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Italian – all different types of races. And entering Minnesota, it’s predominately white. After me leaving Georgia Tech where I lived in Atlanta. So you go from a melting pot, to a place where there is a lot of black people to where you go where it’s 6 percent black people, it was a culture shock to me.”

Stephon Marbury on culture shock in Minnesota

Later in the interview, he also talked about the unforgiving cold Minnesota weather, a usual reason why the city has never been a go-to destination for free agent athletes – be it in the NBA, NFL, or MLB.

“You’ll wake up and on some days you’ll go outside and if you don’t have this-and-this, you could die. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to die from this … I don’t wanna die from going outside to my car.’ It was just a different way of living and I wasn’t really down with it…going ice fishing and all of that.”

Stephon Marbury talks about adjusting to daily life in Minnesota

The early break-up of the Garnett-Marbury 1-2 punch resulted in many ”What if?” discussions, particularly for the Timberwolves. The team didn’t do much for the next eight seasons and only went past the first round once during the Garnett era.

Marbury took on an identical path. While he boasted two All-Star seasons and several other good-scoring campaigns between 1998 and 2008, he never made it out of the first round while bouncing to two other teams. His short-lived reunion with Garnett in 2009 for the Boston Celtics was the only time he played in the second round of the playoffs, and that was when his NBA career was pretty much over. He got waived at the end of the season and played in China until 2018.

It worked out in the end for Marbury though, who overcame his demons and turned his life around during his time in China, where he played until 2018. He became a beloved figure to millions of fans and receiving his own statue, museum, and even a postage stamp. In June 2019, he became the head coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters.

There are many other unfortunate players who never found their feet after bouncing out of the NBA, like Delonte West, but Marbury wasn’t one of them. Marbury never forgot his roots either, and has recently made headlines for his efforts to try to help his home town of New York City by brokering a deal to help bring sorely needed equipment to its besieged healthcare workers.