Marbury signs with Celtics, makes Friday night debut

Stephon Marbury has finally been given a new lease on his life as a professional basketball player.  Shortly after clearing waivers on Friday afternoon, the New York Knicks castoff signed with the World Champion Boston Celtics and is expected to play a backup role behind starting pointguard Rajon Rondo.  Marbury signed for $1.2 million which is not prorated, meaning he’ll earn in excess of $52,000 for each of the team’s remaining 23 regular season games.

A few hours later, Marbury made what amounted to a successful debut with his new team.  He entered the game just before the end of the first quarter to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd at Boston’s TD BankNorth Garden.  Marbury was clearly touched by the gesture, which he emphasized in his post game comments:

"Oh, man, I wanted to cry. I didn't know what to expect. I thought people would clap, but they showed me a lot of love tonight."

Marbury played well after shaking off some ‘ring rust’ accumulated in over a year away from the game.  He finished with eight points and two assists in just under 13 minutes, and scored six points during a crucial fourth quarter run that led the Celtics to a 104-99 victory over the Indiana Pacers.  Afterwards, Marbury suggested that his Celtics debut couldn’t have gone better:

"It went the way I was praying for it to go. The whole satisfaction of the whole night for me is that we won."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers was as pleased with the fact that the drama and speculation of the Marbury situation is behind the team and that they can now focus on the stretch run and the forthcoming NBA playoffs:

"I'm just happy now that I know what I have. A week ago, we didn't. You can see them [the playoffs] out there, 22 games away. That's nice. We can't wait to get to them."

He also had some words of praise for the newest member of the Celtics’ roster:

"He had the boxer legs in the first half. But in the second half, he was terrific. You could just see his basketball IQ. It just really worked tonight. It's going to keep getting better, you could see that."

Marbury and the Celtics will play the Detroit Pistons at home on Sunday before traveling to the Meadowlands for his first road game in the green and white against the New Jersey Nets.  One would expect a less welcoming reaction from the crowd than he received in his Boston debut.