By Jeff Lenchiner, editor of InsideHoops.com
Boston Celtics free agent guard Stephon Marbury ran a live webcam broadcast that he began Friday morning around 6 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) and said would to go on for a full 24 hours, lasting through Saturday morning. And it appears he accomplished it.
Scroll down to watch Marbury’s webcast live here on InsideHoops.com
Here are live notes taken as the broadcast happened. This is totally unedited.
Marbury is responding to questions from fans. The uStream system has two chats on the page; one for Twitter users to log in and the other for registered uStream.TV members. It’s all free but they all require registering.
I’ve only been watching since around 4 p.m. ET but this is probably the most amusing NBA-related chat I’ve seen. He’s ranting and raving, yelling lots of positive stuff, sounding like a mix of a modern-day preacher, emotionally-challenged torn soul with issues to work out, spiritual leader, crazed homeless dude, and lover of all of humanity. But the message of the chat is really uplifting. He is repeatedly emphasizing love, strength and togetherness, in his own special, out-there way.
Marbury’s been shirtless the whole broadcast. I assume the ladies out there are happy.
He’s doing the broadcast from his house, mostly from his kitchen, though viewers are also being taken on a tour of other rooms, including the outside, his cars, backyard and pool.
After hours of talking, Marbury went for a swim.
Since I tuned it on Friday afternoon, approximately 2,200 viewers on average are watching, according to live viewer stats automatically published on the page by ustream.tv. Though as I checked in every other hour or so, the average was more like around 1,800 viewers.
Actual ustream employees were in Marbury’s house most of Friday, to help set up the equipment and make sure everything was working properly. And a camera assistant or two with portable equipment followed Marbury when he moved around or went outside.
Lower down on this page I am posting a bunch of notes and memorable quotes from the chat.
I just spent 10 days in Las Vegas staying out all night and returned to NYC just yesterday, so I was more than happy to spend today indoors relaxing and made sure to check in on Marbury’s broadcast regularly. I didn’t go out Friday night and fell asleep early, around midnight ET.
SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE: Waking up at 6:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning, I immediately turned the Marbury broadcast back on and there he was, lying down but still talking nonstop. It appears he really has been on for close to 24 straight hours. And he’s still going. An average of 550-600 viewers are tuned in at this hour, according to the live counter.
This really is epic from an athlete/fan interaction perspective. He’s sat for literally a day straight responding to anything fans typed at him, mostly trying to respond to regular comments but also taking on some negative stuff. In all my years covering the NBA (full-time for InsideHoops.com since around 2002) I’ve never seen anything like this.
InsideHoops.com fan discussion of the broadcast is in this forum topic.
MONDAY, JULY 27 UPDATE: WATCH MARBURY WEBCAST LIVE HERE
Marbury broadcast a lot all weekend, and now as of Monday seems to be going live almost constantly for much of the day and night. Bookmark this page and you can view it anytime, below, by clicking play.
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Marbury Webcam Broadcast Notes
– Do not try to put Marbury in a box. He doesn’t enjoy it. Seriously, that was the theme of the chat. Marbury said/yelled “They tried to put me in a box!” what literally felt like hundreds of times over the course of the web broadcast, from start to finish.
– Marbury hates haters. And wants to pull their dresses up over their heads to expose them.
– “I’m not the best point guard in the world. Chris Paul is the best point guard in the world”
– He’s not mad. Does he look mad? Nope, he’s smiling and not mad.
– “They tried to put me in the box! But it’s all G, baby!”
– “Now I want to go back to school and get my degree.” Marbury said his time at Georgia Tech was devoted to basketball and getting his mom out of the hood.
– Several times, Marbury named Kobe Bryant as the league’s best player.
– Marbury on New York: “They treated me like they want to be treated. I won’t treat them like that, though.”
– “Shoutout to Mike Hunt!”
– “I want to go everywhere on this planet. I want to see it all.”
– “I have the IQ of Jerome James? Thank you!”
– “I don’t want to be anybody’s favorite player. I want to be your favorite person.”
– “If it ain’t positive, it ain’t love.”
– “Your word is all you got. And people get it twisted.”
– “Who want to build up this positive city with me?”
– “The haters can’t even get in right now. There’s too much love right now.”
– “Tough everybody. Talk about it. Let it be conversation. Let it be Sunday conversation. Talk to your kids about it. This the type of love you got to have.”
– “Leave yourself completely vulnerable. That’s the only way you’re going to be able to love.”
– “I know ESPN hate me. It’s OK. I went to ESPN when I was younger and I used to give them free commercial. And then they took my words, saying ‘dogfighting was a sport’ and they cut out “from what I heard” … I took heat from that. My company got knocked in the chin. People boycotting against my sneaker line.” (Paraphrase, but close to exact quote)
– Marbury basically wants to visit everyplace on Earth. Especially India and Israel, among tons of other places.
– The neighborhood in Slumdog Millionaire, that’s the real hood.
– “I’m going to the bathroom! They tried to put me in a box! But we’re unstoppable!” (Yes, this was all said together, with alnost no pause in between the three sentences).
– Marbury is a huge fan of the rapper Drake.
– “If you’ve been here since 6 o’clock in the morning, put your 24 up!” (Tons of people in the chat then type “24” in response)
– “This is why I will never do cocaine. Because Len Bias did cocaine and died the first time. That’s what they said, and I haven’t heard different.” (Paraphrase but close to exact quote)
– “Love is love.” (This quote was a common theme throughout the broadcast.)
– At 7:18 a.m. ET the only people awake in the house are Marbury and a dude nicknamed MoonCricket, who works with Stephon and does film and broadcasting. The others who helped make sure the broadcast stayed on are all asleep, Marbury says.
– “I’ll play back in New York if they step up to the plate…. They tried to put me in a box! What’s up now? I’ll go back to New York and play.”
– “All is forgiven. You have to forgive to forget.”
– “Love is love! Love is love! Love is love!” This was a common theme of the night. Also, “God is love!”
– Marbury early Saturday morning keeps repeating that this is the greatest and most funny thing anyone has ever seen, especially after he ran around messing around with the other dudes who were sleeping.
– He’s been loaded with energy the whole broadcast. And no, he’s not on anything.
– They’re working four cameras, said Cricket, the only guy to stay up the entire 24 hours along with Marbury.
– And, more dancing. Several times over the course of the 24 hours the talking stopped, music was blasting, and Marbury — and occasionally Cricket — danced for the fans. Cricket can bring it.
– MVP is Most Valuable Person. This was another common theme throughout the broadcast. Marbury repeated many times that he wants to be your most valuable person.
– Marbury said several times that he doesn’t care about the NBA like he used to. He wants to keep playing, and wants real minutes, not the 8-12 per game that Boston had available for him, but recognizes that life and being a good person is much more important than playing professional basketball.
– Tonight, we’ve all made history, Marbury says.
– At 8:13 a.m. ET Marbury said “I don’t got no more in me. My voice is gone.” He’s still on, though, talking less but typing plenty. There are 700 people currently tuned in. A few people in chat have said that in 45 minutes it’ll have been a full 24 hours.
– Around 8:30 a.m. ET Marbury, after repeating “Put your number one’s up” many times, stopped talking and started crying while holding up a no.1 finger. Not merely shedding tears, but full-on crying for a good two or three minutes. “Happy tears. Happy tears. Happy tears. Happy tears,” he said as 765 viewers watched.
– It’s now 8:56 a.m. ET and Marbury’s been silently holding up a “1” finger for a while now.
– At 9:02 a.m. ET, with Marbury continuing to silently sit and sometimes type on a laptop while holding his no.1 finger up, the broadcast ended.
