Stephon Back in Brooklyn for Torch Run, Basketball Classic

Spoken by Stephon Marbury's mom, Mabel -- and spoken with tears in her eyes -- these were the words the Knicks superstar point guard will remember the longest about his big day. And it was a day to remember, indeed: Marbury first ran the Olympic Torch through Brooklyn's Bushwick section, then followed up by opening the Ninth Annual Stephon Marbury Basketball Classic in his old Coney Island neighborhood.

"Mom says it best," Marbury said between a kiss and a hug. "My mom is the best."

Over 700 kids, between the ages of 6-18, participating annually in the Classic would swear the Marbury apple didn't fall far from the tree. "We do this every summer," Marbury said as kids off all sizes followed him from car to court like he was some kind of a Pied Piper in sneakers. "It's important to give back. It's important to never forget where you came from and to do your best to uplift people. We're doing this upscale. We're giving kids sneakers. We're giving kids who do good work in school as well scholarships to attend my camp. And you know what? It's the least I can do. It makes me feel great. Just by being here, I' know I'm igniting them to do better. I'm inspiring them to have big dreams."

"It's our ninth year now," said John Quintana, a sanitation engineer during the week, Marbury's Tournament Site Director on weekends. "And I think we're doing a great thing for the kids. And not just kids from the New York area: we have teams from New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania as well! Seventy teams are participating this year and we have another 30-40 on the waiting list. Our mission is to take kids off the street over the summer and have them involved in doing something positive. To teach them about work ethic, responsibility, and sportsmanship. And it's working: we are getting all kinds of outstanding feedback from teachers and parents about kids using this tournament as an incentive to behave and study.”

"And how about this? Since Stephon's tournament has begun, not one kid from Coney Island has been killed due to street violence during the summer. Previously? We had five or six -- every year." The Classic is run in recognition of Stephon's high-school teammate Jason "Juice" Sowell, who was killed when they were both in their senior year. "My son and Stephon won the City and State championship with Lincoln High School in 1994-95," Mrs. Sowell said. "He is an inspiration. So let's stop the violence in our community and learn to listen to and love each other. The secret of success is in education. Let's use this tournament to elevate and inspire our children."

Players such as Pacers' point Jamaal Tinsley, prep-to-pro sensation Sebastian Telfair, and current college players Quincy Douby (Rutgers), Chris Taft (Pitt), Gary Erwin (Mississippi State), Curtis Sumpter and Jason Fraser (both Villanova) have played in this tournament over the years. But don't tell that to eight-year old Gabriel Mack, by all accounts the Daddy Mac of his "Team Face." Which came to play in the Marbury Classic on Coney Island all the way from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania!

"I heard Marbury is coming," the little guy stated matter-of-factly. "Is anyone else going to be here? How about Allen Iverson -- he's my favorite player, you know, and I heard Tracy McGrady might come." Later -- after winning a Knicks tee-shirt, a Stephon poster and a Willis Reed bobble-head doll by sinking five shots in a row at the side of the Knicks Groove truck -- Daddy Mac grudgingly acknowledged that meeting "just" Stephon Marbury was pretty great in itself. The Knicks Street team was on hand throughout the day with the Knicks Groove Truck to show Knicks support for the Marbury tournament and its participants. Hundreds of Brooklynites received free t-shirts, bobbleheads, stickers, posters and magnets as the entered the Coney Island park.

"We'll drive in every weekend to play here," Team Face Dad (and head coach) Franklin Wilson said. "It's a three hour drive -- and it's nothing. It's all about the kids." Face opened the Tournament against East New York's Kwatny Panthers -- with three-footer Daddy Mac doing his T-Mac thing all over the court. "Stephon refereed -- that was pretty cool," he said afterwards.

Marbury, having the time of his life, thought the whole afternoon was pretty cool. But running the Olympic Torch in the morning was enough to lose his cool: "I swear I had tears in my eyes," he said. "I was handed the torch by a person who had no sight. Then, as I started to run with it and everyone was cheering, I thought: "Wow, this thing will go directly all the way to Athens! The whole world is going to be there -- and I'm going to participate." "I'm telling you, I had chills running up and down my spine. It was indescribable. It was the coolest."