High Plains Drifter
New Member
The Starburies (named after Stephon Marbury) are a select group of players who are actually good ballers, but for reasons of their own making are, to put it bluntly, losers. Perhaps their teams are better when they leave or are injured (The Ewing Theory). Perhaps when they join a new team they don't reach their predicted heights because they, quite simply, are not as good as advertised.
So who are your favorite Starburies? A few of my own:
Tracy McGrady: Classic ball-stopper. Stat stuffer with fantastic looking statistics at first glance, but almost always shot a poor percentage. Lacked heart and toughness. Never won a playoff series. A unanimous selection to the All-Starbury squad. No reasonable non-homer would defend him.
Baron Davis: Selfish, me-first point guard is a recipe for disaster, making him true Starbury material. Capable of mindblowing moments of athleticism which cloud our judgment from time-to-time. One big season and an all-world playoff series upset of the Mavs with the run-and-gun Warriors is not enough to keep him off the list. At 29 he was a washed up bum. I'd say he took down two franchises single-handed (Clips and GS), but I can't give him that much credit since those are two of the most historically pathetic franchises in all of sport, with or without his best contributions.
Allen Iverson: Lots of AI fans out there, but here's my defense: Another Starbury quality is leading a team to respectability when you are the head honcho, the main man a la Iverson's taking the Sixers to the Finals roughly 10 years ago. That was quite a feat because that team was full of scrubs. Let's not forget also that year saw arguably among the weakest collection of teams in a conference in the history of the NBA. The ECF with the Bucks went 7 games as did their previous series in which the Toronto Craptors were a Vince Carter buzzer beater away from possibly being the the team to represent the East that year. In other words, righ place right time for Mr. Iverson.
But a Starbury really shows his true colors when he joins a star-studded group that has an eye on the title (see the Denver Nuggets). The Nugs dealt Andre Miller and some trash to get Iverson, but never actually improved with the deal. In fact, at the time of the trade, the Nugs were 14-9 with Miller running the offense. With Iverson they were 31-28. The next year they won 50 games, but were jettisoned in a first round sweep at the hands of the Lakers, tossed away like a soiled handkerchief. Three plodding games into the following season Iverson is gone, aiding an admittedly already sinking ship in Detroit. But what happened to Denver? They took LA 6 games in the WCF and for a minute it actually looked like they were going to win the darned thing.
Any other Starburies out there?
So who are your favorite Starburies? A few of my own:
Tracy McGrady: Classic ball-stopper. Stat stuffer with fantastic looking statistics at first glance, but almost always shot a poor percentage. Lacked heart and toughness. Never won a playoff series. A unanimous selection to the All-Starbury squad. No reasonable non-homer would defend him.
Baron Davis: Selfish, me-first point guard is a recipe for disaster, making him true Starbury material. Capable of mindblowing moments of athleticism which cloud our judgment from time-to-time. One big season and an all-world playoff series upset of the Mavs with the run-and-gun Warriors is not enough to keep him off the list. At 29 he was a washed up bum. I'd say he took down two franchises single-handed (Clips and GS), but I can't give him that much credit since those are two of the most historically pathetic franchises in all of sport, with or without his best contributions.
Allen Iverson: Lots of AI fans out there, but here's my defense: Another Starbury quality is leading a team to respectability when you are the head honcho, the main man a la Iverson's taking the Sixers to the Finals roughly 10 years ago. That was quite a feat because that team was full of scrubs. Let's not forget also that year saw arguably among the weakest collection of teams in a conference in the history of the NBA. The ECF with the Bucks went 7 games as did their previous series in which the Toronto Craptors were a Vince Carter buzzer beater away from possibly being the the team to represent the East that year. In other words, righ place right time for Mr. Iverson.
But a Starbury really shows his true colors when he joins a star-studded group that has an eye on the title (see the Denver Nuggets). The Nugs dealt Andre Miller and some trash to get Iverson, but never actually improved with the deal. In fact, at the time of the trade, the Nugs were 14-9 with Miller running the offense. With Iverson they were 31-28. The next year they won 50 games, but were jettisoned in a first round sweep at the hands of the Lakers, tossed away like a soiled handkerchief. Three plodding games into the following season Iverson is gone, aiding an admittedly already sinking ship in Detroit. But what happened to Denver? They took LA 6 games in the WCF and for a minute it actually looked like they were going to win the darned thing.
Any other Starburies out there?
