Former NBA star Stephon Marbury reveals he was suicidal in 09

In 2009, when UStream and other streaming services were super popular, former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury used both it, and Twitter to share a slice of his life with followers. What resulted was the infamous “Vaseline eating” video, and questions about Steph’s mental health.

Marbury has revealed that he was not just depressed at that time, but suicidal. Starting around 2007 things began to spiral for Starbury, his father had passed away, it was apparent he was on the downside of his NBA career, and his shoe company – whose goal was to offer affordable basketball shoes – was going out of business.

“When everything went on with the Knicks, and, you know, my father passed on, the [Starbury] brand was — it was basically losing life slowly,” Marbury tells HBO Real Sports’ Carlos Quintanilla. “And I was watching it. And I think that was hurting me more than seeing my basketball career going in the direction that it was going. … I was trapped in my thoughts. I was trapped in how I felt about how I felt I was treated. I was trapped with decisions that I made.”

Marbury admits now that he was “definitely” clinically depressed and “suicidal” at that point in his life.

“I wanted to die,” he remembers. “I wanted to kill myself some days. I did. … It wasn’t about basketball. It started to become about me. Because I was that depressed and I was that sick.”

Marbury found inspiration through basketball naturally, but not in the States, China became the road to salvation.

Steph has led Beijing to two titles, he’s even had a bronzed statue erected in his honor, plus a play has been written about him, and the impact he has had on the city. The episode airs on HBO Tuesday, January 20th.