The rumors of the death of the career of Stephon Marbury and with it the demise of his Starbury shoes have proven to be just a bit premature. Last season found Marbury a free agent searching in vain for a NBA team willing to sign him to even a one year contract at anything approaching what he thought he was worth, or as the season went on, to what the teams thought he might be worth. As a result, last January he packed his bags and headed off to China to play for to join Shanxi Zhongyu of the Chinese Basketball Association. A rather surprising move since salaries for foreign players in the CBA are capped at $60,000 per month.
Marbury was sold on the opportunity to sell his Starbury line of shoes and clothing in China. Initially, that didn't really take off but it now appears that the resurrection of the Starbury line will be greater than he probably imagined before he moved to China. According to the Wall Street Journal, Marbury is finalizing a deal with the owner of the basketball team which employs Marbury - and for which Marbury just agreed to play for an additional two years - to form a joint venture to manufacture, distribute and promote Starburys in China. Initial funding will allow for the set-up of manufacturing operations and the opening of at least the first three stores of which Marbury is predicting will be hundreds. If, the results of a signing appearance reported in the Journal, where $30,000 in shoes (at least than $50.00 per pair, many as low as $14.98) were sold in just two hours, Marbury's prediction may be low.
This may also represent the new model for American basketball players to be lured to China. It is certainly one way around the salary cap, at least for those stars with name recognition in China who are willing to do the promotional work and personal appearances necessary to promote shoes or other personally branded products for which endorsement income can offset the salary, but structured in a way that more closely resembles Starbury or Michael Jordan and Nike than just your typical endorsement contract.
