Getty Stephon Marbury in Beijing
Former Knick and Celtic Stephon Marbury is well-settled into his new home in China, where he has become an icon both as a player and now, as a first-year coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters of the Chinese Basketball Association. But as the global coronavirus crisis has spread from the Far East to the East Coast, Marbury—a Coney Island native—has taken notice of the problems happening in his old home. He has attempted to respond.
On Sunday, he told the New York Post that he is trying to facilitate a deal to send 10 million N95 surgical masks from China to New York to help doctors and nurses handling COVID-19 patients stay safe. The deal, though, has been hung up in New York’s bureaucracy.
Marbury has seen the impact the virus can have. The coronavirus crisis, which began in China’s Wuhan Province, has begun to abate in the country and there are masks available there. Marbury told the Post the masks could be shipped in five installments of 2 million masks.
“At the end of the day, I am from Brooklyn,” Marbury told the Post. “This is something that is close and dear to my heart as far as being able to help New York.”
“I have family there in Coney Island, a lot of family … who are affected by this, so I know how important it is for people to have masks during this time.”
Mask Shortage a Crisis During Coronavirus Pandemic
Hospitals across the country are struggling with a shortage of protective masks for their personnel on the front lines. The New York Times reported that “Many doctors said they were being given just one mask, to use indefinitely. Between patients, they spray it down with a disinfectant or wipe it off, hoping for the best. But they feared that being forced to reuse a mask might infect patients who did not yet have the virus.”
In early March, the World Health Organization reported that about 89 million masks per month would be needed in the fight against the coronavirus globally.
Around that time, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was guaranteeing an order of 500 million masks over the next 18 months. But that does not mean the masks are on the way—only that it could facilitate their production. “Through guaranteed orders,” the HHS website read, “this acquisition encourages manufacturers to immediately increase production of N95s for use by health care professionals. These guaranteed orders offer reassurance to manufacturers that they will not be left with excess supplies.”
Even that might not be enough, though. The department said that a worst-case coronavirus pandemic could require as many as 3.5 billion masks in a year.
Stephon Marbury a Bridge to China
Marbury has been in China since 2010. He was the biggest name to sign in the CBA at the time and unlike most American players who sign on in China—with the goal of cashing a check, playing for a few months and bolting—Marbury embraced the experience. He led the Beijing Ducks to three CBA championships. He wrote a weekly newspaper column in the China Daily.
China embraced him back. He became an icon in Beijing, receiving a permanent residence card, a rare privilege for foreigners (there are only about 5,000 of them). He even got a statue outside the Ducks’ stadium.
The relationship between the United States and China has been frosty in recent years and even the basketball relationship took a foul turn in October with the tweet from Rockets GM Daryl Morey in support of anti-China Hong Kong protestors.
But Marbury is one of the few who can bridge the gap between the cultures in a time of crisis.