National Basketball Association

Stephon Marbury says the NBA is using Jeremy Lin like 'a puppet'

Published Jul. 1, 2016 3:00 p.m. ET

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Andrew Lynch

Former NBA star Stephon Marbury hasn't been shy about sharing his opinion since becoming a basketball legend in China. Most notably, he took Michael Jordan to task earlier this year for "robbing the hood" with Jordan Brand sneakers -- something Marbury wants to tackle by "flooding the world" with his own lower priced signature kicks.

Now, Marbury's offering his two cents on Jeremy Lin's latest contract with the Brooklyn Nets. The former Charlotte Hornets point guard is on his way back to the Big Apple, where he initially burst onto the scene with the New York Knicks during a fantastic stretch of games that we dubbed "Linsanity." Lin's new deal will pay him a reported $36 million over three years, which is pretty great for him. But Marbury believes Lin is just a pawn in the NBA's game of global economics:

Marbury, who signed in China in 2010, has become a cultural phenomenon abroad. He has his own museum in China, and he recently became one of the few foreign athletes to be granted permanent resident status in the country.

Marbury played for the Knicks from 2004 until 2009, the last five years of his NBA career. In his final season with New York, Marbury made just shy of $21 million, so his comments probably aren't based entirely in jealousy, although he clearly wasn't a fan of Lin's time with the Knicks.

Perhaps the two-time All-Star just has a bit of sticker shock. With the NBA's salary cap increasing by $24 million this offseason, most of the deal's being signed over the coming weeks are going to seem preposterous. Lin's deal, for example, has about the same cap hit as a $9 million-per-year contract would have last season. That cap-adjusted number is still quite a bit of a raise over Lin's $2 million salary in 2015-16, but it's certainly in line with the $8.4 million he made per year in the three seasons before that.

Somehow, though, it feels like this context probably won't persuade Marbury to feel any differently.

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