Happy Chinese New Year! I hope the spirit of the Dragon brings you greatness, goodness and a wealth of blessings.

It is always good to go home. Recently, I got that chance and went to New York City for about a week.

There, I was able to recharge, get some much-needed rest, plus I managed to spend some quality time with my family.

"You have to rest your mind as well as your body, Stephon," my mother, Mabel, would always tell me.

Anyway, soon after I got home, my older sister, Stephanie, cooked me some of my favorite soul food dishes. She is a professional chef so I enjoyed eating her fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese plus stuffing and candied yams. And that was just for starters. My mother made me some rice pudding, which I love too.

It was also nice being home to celebrate the birthday of my son, Stephon II. He turned seven on Jan 22. I just couldn't imagine missing another one of his birthday parties, especially, after he said, "Daddy, you are never home for my birthday".

But, the icing on my son's cake was not as sweet as what happened to my teammates and me before us leaving Beijing for our short break. We won a tough game against CBA leading scorer J.R. Smith and Zhejiang, and it felt like we had rebounded from our recent struggles.

Remember, in late December and early January, when we hit a few bumps in the road and lost five or so straight games after going through our first 13 games undefeated?

Fortunately, we have returned to our winning ways. We won five out of our past six games, which is a clear indication we are playing better as a team.

Honestly, I think it was good that we experienced our slump when we did. We learned from our mistakes, especially the younger guys whose confidence was tested after playing a few bad games in a row.

As one of the team leaders, I just kept stressing to the younger guys to play hard and we would get through the funk. Fortunately, they did, and that helped us turn things around.

Now, our goal is to create an identity. We want to establish ourselves as a united and defensive force. Yes, offense wins games, but defense wins championships. This is hard to do for any pro sports team, including in basketball. That's because winning a title requires playing your best at both ends of the court, night in and night out.

I have been blessed to play pro basketball at the highest level for about 15 years in the NBA plus the Chinese Basketball League. But I must tell you that I too have had my ups and downs, and still do.

My teammates respect the fact that I share my basketball challenges, and how I deal with them. You cannot play well or win every game. I know because I have had my share of both during my career. I started playing basketball at the age of two and, on Feb 20, I will turn 35.

At that age, most pro basketball players have retired or are planning to, but not me. I think I have a few more good years left. But when I do retire, it will most likely be from the CBA. I want the fans here to be the last ones to see me unlace my Starbury sneakers then walk away for good from the game of basketball that I love so, so much. Stay tuned. Love is love.

Yours truly,

Starbury

Stephon Marbury can be reached at sports@chinadaily.com.cn