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New York-born basketball star Stephon Marbury has shrugged off the sensation caused by his application for a Chinese ""green card"" Nike Air Force 1 UK Wholesale , saying he has long made Beijing his home away from home regardless of his residence status.


Marbury, who led the Beijing Ducks to three Chinese Basketball Association championship titles in four years, made his commitment to spending the rest of his life in China official by applying for a permanent residence permit on Friday. The announcement triggered a massive amount of discussion among fans on social media.


The former National Basketball Association All-Star has become hugely popular in China since joining the CBA in 2010 after 13 up-and-down years in the NBA.


""It's all positive－it's about being able to be recognized in that manner and to be able to have respect from the people,"" Marbury told China Daily at his apartment in downtown Beijing on Sunday.


The Beijing Public Security Bureau later confirmed on its micro blog that Marbury's application had been received and will be dealt with in the normal way.


If approved, Marbury will become the first overseas athlete to join about 5,000 foreigners who have been granted the permit. The document is issued to individuals who work in China, have longterm investments and have made an outstanding contribution to the country.


Marbury overcame injuries and a skeptical media to lead the Ducks to a third CBA title over favorite Liaoning Flying Leopards last month, and won the Most Valuable Player award in the final.


""I will still feel the same with the card or without the card. I won't feel much different, this is still home for me, this is in my heart,"" said the 38-year-old US citizen.


His fondness for his adopted hometown is not only in his heart. The Brooklyn native has confirmed his emotional tie with the Chinese capital by tattooing the Chinese characters that spell the phrase ""Beijing wang chao"", meaning ""Beijing dynasty"", on his chest.


""This is my last tattoo,"" said Marbury, who also has his name in Chinese tattooed on the inside of his left forearm. ""I understood a little bit deeper when I got this tattoo because it represented the loyalty, the sweat, the pain and all the different things we went through to get what we got (a third CBA championship for Beijing).


""It has a symbolic meaning and it is a positive reminder of what people are capable of if they put heart and mind into it."" Despite the superstar status he now enjoys, it was a very different story back home before he began his Chinese adventure.


Public feuds with two coaches－Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas－meant that Marbury struggled while playing for the New York Knicks from 2004 to 2009. He was criticized by fans and the media for not leading the team to more victories.


The warm hospitality Marbury received in China gave him a clean slate and an opportunity to rebuild his basketball career.


He has more than 3.7 million followers on his personal micro blog. He is about to start shooting a movie provisionally titled New Yorker in Beijing based on his story.

" " Paul Pierce of the Wizards shoots against the Hawks on Saturday. Photo: CFP

Paul Pierce banked in the game-winner on Saturday to lift the short-handed Washington Wizards to a 103-101 NBA playoff victory over the Atlanta Hawks.


Pierce's heroics gave the Wizards a 2-1 lead over Eastern Conference top seeds -Atlanta in their best-of-seven second-round series - and thwarted the Hawks' bid to rally from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit.


Washington's All-Star guard John Wall, who has five fractures in his non-shooting left hand, watched from the sidelines in street clothes as his team built a comfortable lead, only to see it evaporate in the final 10 minutes as the Hawks, sparked by their reserves, stormed back with a 21-3 scoring run.


That included a stretch of 17 unanswered points to make it 94-91 with 3:12 to play.


Mike Muscala pulled the Hawks level with a three-pointer with 14.8 seconds to play.


Pierce held the ball for the last shot and banked in a jumper as the buzzer -sounded, sparking a wild celebration among his teammates.


The Wizards managed nicely without Wall, sharing the ball with 27 assists and 37 baskets. Bradley Beal, Otto Porter and Nene contributed 17 points apiece.


Jeff Teague had 18 points for Atlanta, Al Horford added 14 and DeMarre Carroll chipped in 12.


But it was the Hawks' -reserves who made a game of it, scoring 33 of Atlanta's 35 points in the fourth quarter.


There was no such drama in Memphis, where the Grizzlies took a 2-1 series lead over Western Conference top seeds Golden State with a 99-89 victory over the Warriors.


Spanish big man Marc Gasol had 21 points and 15 rebounds and Zach Randolph scored 22 for the Grizzlies as they held off a Warriors team that had finished with the best regular-season record in the league.


Golden State, whose explosive offensive talent includes newly crowned NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry, had comfortably won the first game of the series, improving to 5-0 this postseason.


But with Mike Conley back from surgery to repair a facial fracture, the Grizzlies won game two and Conley was again a key element on Saturday. He scored a modest 11 points, but that included a driving layup with 39 seconds left that put the game away.


Curry finished with 23 points and six assists, connecting on just eight of 21 shots from the floor and two of 10 from the three-point range.


Teammate Klay Thompson scored 20 points on eight of 13 shooting from the field.

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LOS ANGELES， Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative could be a superhighway of environmental progress， according to a new study by Michigan State University， detailed in this month's edition of Ecosystem Health and Sustainability.


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