Remember, some time ago, when Tommy Craggs of New York magazine wrote that crackerjack story on Stephon Marbury?
There was, it turns out, a little more to the story.
Now on Deadspin is the lengthy exchange Craggs had in a Charleston hotel room with Marbury about religion. The whole thing is a good read. Here's a part:
"You don't believe in God?"
I don't.
Marbury chewed on this for a moment. "Everybody's different," he said. "You don't believe in God. So ... are you an atheist?"
Yes, I would say so.
Some bad Abbott and Costello dialogue ensued. Marbury began poking at the edges of my non-belief. He was trying to take its measure.
"So that's like you not believing - like, if I said to you, somebody could jump from the free-throw line, you automatically don't believe it?"
It's nothing like that.
"So you don't believe there was a Jesus Christ?"
I do. He was a great carpenter.
Marbury laughed. "That's cool. That's what you believe."
We went on in this vein for awhile. I expressed the standard skepticism about Noah and the 300-cubit-long boat that could somehow accommodate the rough equivalent of the San Diego Zoo, at which point Marbury dropped the following thought on my head that we now pick up midstream:
"... Why does green mean that's the color green? Why can't you say another word for green being green? Know what I'm saying?"
I did not.
UPDATE: TrueHoop reader Brendan e-mails with a theory that the whole "color green" angle here may be a mangled reference to an Anthony de Mello passage about explaining the color green to a blind person. It's the fourth section on that page.
