Forget those superstar ballers hawking stratospherically priced signature
footwear. Our new hero is Knicks
guard Stephon Marbury. The reason:
He’s unveiled the Starbury athletic
shoes and clothing line, available at
Steve & Barry’s stores. The hook: His
shoe line retails for $14.98—a fraction
of the $100-plus price tags of other
NBA star shoes. And some Starbury
clothes go for $9.98. So why is he forgoing a big payday? He remembers
the sting of not being able to afford
signature shoes when he was growing
up in the Coney Island, Brooklyn projects. “Now … parents [will] be able to
buy kids something and the kids can
feel good about it,” Marbury says.
Spoken like a true hero.
VICTAH SAILER/PHOTORUN
He Doesn’t
Want to Be
Like Mike
Track Record
Few things get a chance to celebrate a
100th anniversary, but on Feb. 2 the Mill-
rose Games in New York City becomes
one of them. The best indoor track-and-
field event in the world, the games have
been held at Madison Square Garden
since 1914—the oldest-running sporting
event held at the legendary venue.
Track star and former
Olympian Mary Decker
won her first Millrose
crown at age 15.
Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph and
Carl Lewis competed over the years,
along with Mary Decker, who resurfaced
after her tragic fall at the bare feet of
Zola Budd at the 1984 Olympics. In 1985,
at the Garden, a vindicated Decker won the famed
Wanamaker Mile in just over four minutes. Go to
millrose-games.com for more information.
Reader’s Choice
Call it CliffsNotes for working professionals. Playaway digital audiobooks let
you literally digest entire classics or New York Times best
sellers without turning a page. Though pricey—$34.99 to
$54.99 per individual manuscript—palm-sized systems
ship with everything you need to tune right in, including
an AAA battery and headphones. Just pull the tab,
attach prepackaged earbuds and press play.
A growing catalog (available from playawaydigital.
com or Borders, OfficeMax and Barnes & Noble) encom-
passes 90-plus favorites.
True, building a personal
library could set you back more
than constructing an actual bricks-
and-mortar one. Try cramming The
Kite Runner into your pocket on
the next business trip, though,
and see if the unit’s value isn’t
self-explanatory.
