Marbury hails 'competitive' CBA playoff finals

BEIJING - Former NBA all-star guard Stephon Marbury has hailed the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) Finals as an "extremely competitive series" after his prediction that Guangdong would defend its title came true on Wednesday.

Marbury, who went back to the United States after his CBA club, Foshan Longlions, failed to reach the postseason last month, appeared at the Guangdong Southern Tigers' home stadium on April 22 to watch the host's best-of-seven final series game against the Xinjiang Flying Tigers.

"The teams played extremely hard. The game was much more competitive than I had imagined. Xinjiang played very well, but Guangdong will win the championship," Marbury said at courtside when Guangdong stunned Xinjiang in its second home game last Friday and leveled the series to 2-2.