Starbury’s tenure grew short with the lack of playoff appearances and he was then traded to the Phoenix Suns for Jason Kidd. The Phoenix Suns wanted to bring in youth and with Stephon coming in, it allowed them to run a faster offense with the likes of Amare Stoudamire and Shawn Marion. Although his first year there, they didn’t make the playoffs, the second year began to turn things around, including a second All-star game bid. Things eventually went rocky after a playoff dismissal and firing of head coach Frank Johnson, management began to restructure salary cap and implemented a higher paced offense with the likes of offensive guru Mike D’antoni. This was the beginning of the end of Marbury as a Sun (even only he earned Bronze medal during the Olympic games, while starting along side Allen Iverson.)
