Marion Ready to Seize Olympic Moment

For the second straight summer, it appears Suns All-Star forward Shawn Marion will be forgoing a tropical paradise offseason vacation to perform a service for his country.

Instead of lying on the beaches of Saint Tropez, as originally planned, the five-year NBA veteran told a gathering of local media at America West Arena on Thursday that he will soon begin preparing for the Games of the XVIII Olympiad this August.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you’ve got to seize the moment,” said Marion, who has twice before donned Team USA’s uniform in international competition, but never in the Olympics. “It’s just great representing your country to the fullest. This is my third time putting it on. It’s exciting.”

After sacrificing an island resort vacation last summer to travel to Kuwait and tour American military bases in the Middle East as part of Project Salute 2003, the 26-year-old is more than willing to give up some of his free time to compete on the world's grandest athletic stage.

“It’s going to be an experience that I think everybody should get a chance to experience,” he said.

Although security concerns involving current global unrest exist, Marion will be proud to be representing America, the Suns and the city of Phoenix at the birthplace of the modern Olympics in Athens, Greece. The Suns’ organization, in turn, is proud to have one of their own being represented on Team USA for the fourth consecutive Olympic Games.

“It’s great for Shawn,” Head Coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Personally, for him to be able to play in the Olympics and represent the United States, it just sends chills up you. I’m just really happy for him.”

Marion’s mother, Elaine, is also thrilled about her son’s participation in the Olympics and is hopeful that she will be joining him in Athens this summer.

“We are so excited,” she said. “This is what really counts. I’m just hoping and praying that everything goes okay, but I want to go. I want to be over there with him. I’m getting my passport together.”

From a basketball standpoint, Marion is looking forward to playing with some of the NBA’s top talent and against the best the rest of the world has to throw at them.

“When you’re playing with everybody from different teams in the NBA, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “You know how good everybody is when you’re playing against them, but to be on the same team with all good players, it’s crazy.

“The way they play overseas is probably a little bit more physical, like back in the days when the Pistons made their run. That’s how physical it is in international competition. It’s to our advantage to a certain extent because we’re more athletic than most countries, by far, and we can use that to our advantage.”

While the Matrix is confident the U.S. will bring home the gold, having been on the 2002 World Championship team that earned the bronze medal, he realizes nothing can be taken for granted.

“Everybody else is catching up to us,” he admitted. “We’ve got a lot of international players in the league right now and they make a name for themselves. It’s not like we’re going to go out there and they’re going to be pushovers. Everybody’s going to come after us because of that USA on our chests, so it’s a challenge. It’s something that you should thrive off of and it’s something that you should want to do.”

Marion, expected to be officially added to the roster in the coming days, may also be joined by teammate Amaré Stoudemire. ESPN.com reported on Wednesday that NBA sources confirmed that Stoudemire would replace one of the big men who have pulled out of consideration for a spot onthe team.

"If he would have a chance to hang around Tim Duncan and Jermaine O’Neal, and learn what it takes to be great, hopefully some of that stuff rubs off," D'Antoni said of the 2002-03 NBA Rookie-of-the-Year. "We were going to work on that jump shot all summer, but he can still do that. It would just be an unbelievable experience for him and the Suns."