{"id":338217,"date":"2026-09-04T17:34:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338217\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T17:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:34:47","slug":"knicks-legend-stephon-marbury-plans-brooklyn-pickleball-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338217\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Legend Stephon Marbury Plans Brooklyn Pickleball Complex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Yorkers may never get to wander the aisles of Toys \u201cR\u201d Us again, but one of the retailer\u2019s long-vacant Brooklyn locations could soon offer a different kind of playtime.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"401\" data-end=\"777\">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/you-can-see-the-knicks-championship-trophy-live-at-the-natural-history-museum-starting-next-week-072226\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Knicks<\/a> point guard and Coney Island native Stephon Marbury is working with <a href=\"https:\/\/playwellball.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wellball<\/a> to turn that old, abandoned Toys \u201cR\u201d Us storefront on Flatbush Avenue into a permanent sports complex. The enormous space will reportedly contain courts for pickleball and other paddle sports, plus flag football and Wellball, a new, stripped-down spin on basketball built almost entirely around shooting.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"779\" data-end=\"869\">The venue is expected to become Wellball\u2019s Brooklyn flagship, though an opening date has not yet been announced. The project would breathe new life into a building that has sat empty since Toys \u201cR\u201d Us shuttered its U.S. stores in 2018\u2014and give southern Brooklyn another major indoor recreation destination in the process.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"779\" data-end=\"869\">RECOMMENDED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/things-to-do\/pickleball-in-nyc-how-and-why-the-sport-took-over-our-town\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pickleball in NYC: How and why the sport took over our town<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1194\" data-end=\"1549\">Billed as \u201cthe pickleball of basketball,\u201d the game pits players against one another in head-to-head shooting battles. Competitors aim over \u201cThe Well,\u201d a device mounted to the rim that helps direct the action. There is no dribbling and no defense, meaning players can skip the full-court sprinting and focus on sinking buckets.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1551\" data-end=\"1751\">The simplified rules are intended to make the game accessible to players of different ages, sizes and ability levels. Accuracy matters more than height or speed, while quick rounds keep things moving.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1753\" data-end=\"1956\">\u201cEverybody wants to shoot,\u201d Marbury said in <a href=\"https:\/\/scoopb.com\/2025\/10\/stephon-marbury-launches-wellball-in-new-york-endorses-carmelo-anthonys-jersey-retirement-praises-cam-thomas-breaks-down-the-knicks-championship-formula-discusses-giannis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">an interview with Scoop B<\/a>. \u201cWellball, I believe will be the next\u2026 the next wave of how people are able to compete and still do something that they love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1958\" data-end=\"2273\">The game was created by Omar Wellington, a former Division I player at Sacred Heart University who went on to train athletes ranging from young players to NBA pros, including Rick and Jalen Brunson. Marbury has served as a captain in Wellball\u2019s VIP league and has become one of the sport\u2019s most prominent champions.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2275\" data-end=\"2494\">For Marbury, the Flatbush Avenue project amounts to a particularly fitting homecoming: the two-time NBA All-Star grew up in Coney Island, attended Abraham Lincoln High School and played for the Knicks from 2004 to 2009. Now, &#8220;Starbury&#8221; is coming back to Brooklyn\u2014and he\u2019s bringing court space with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers may never get to wander the aisles of Toys \u201cR\u201d Us again, but one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,4773,9,24,4774,63,4772],"class_list":["post-338217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-categories-sports-and-fitness","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news-sports-fitness","tag-nyc","tag-sports-and-fitness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}