A while back, during a post on The Starting Five about Stephon Marbury's good deeds off the court (that post dealt with Marbury's purchase of books for an underfunded library), Jordi from The Serious Tip asked in the comments "is there any blog out there that does nothing but chronicle the good things athletes do"?

The short answer is probably not.  This blog of mine obviously deals with a lot of topics, but we'll do our part to chronicle the good things athletes do as they come up.  Yesterday, thanks to this Posting and Toasting post, I found this article about yet another Stephon Marbury donation. 

In fact, Steph pledged $4 million yesterday (mostly from his successful Starbury sneaker line) to the NYPD, NYFD, public school teachers and EMT.  He was in his old hood on Saturday, out by the Coney Island projects, unofficially the largest public housing projects in the country (officially the Queensbridge Houses are the largest, but that is because the Coney Island projects, which are huge, are considered four seperate projects, not one large one, like the QB) to make his announcement.

Two things that struck me about this donation: One, unlike most player charitable contributions, it was neither through the NBA Cares program, nor was it in the form of a "charity game" or other such event.  Those events are great, and they raise money for good causes, which is the point, but this was just Stephon Marbury going back to his old neighborhood, and letting them know that he's giving money to these causes.  Two, the causes he's giving money to - especially the NYPD, but also the teachers, are not "typical" causes that are endorsed by stars who came from the inner city. 

In fact, Stephen is not only giving money, but is also sending a message about supporting the NYPD and teachers (or libraries, as in his last reported charitable act prior to this).  Even if you are not a big fan of cops or the NYPD, you have to admire the message he is sending.  And who isn't in favor of showing supporting for teachers, for education, and for libraries, which all too often are one of the few sources of educational help in poor neighborhoods - the only place to read quietly, to work on homework, sometimes the only place a poor kid can use a computer and get the familarity with computers that is so required of many jobs today.  

Sadly, it appears this story was confined to the Knicks blog section of the Post, and did not appear in any print articles that I could find.  Once again the story of an athlete doing good is underreported, yet the next time an athlete (like Marbury's cousin Sebastian Telfair) is pulled over and a gun is found, you can bet that will be reported in every major newspaper....

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