Stephon Marbury, head coach of the CBA's Beijing Royal Fighters, and Wang Shaojie, the team's forward who was the No. 1 selection of the 2019 draft, took interviews with CCTV-5, China's state-owned sports channel this week. Marbury talked about his unique coaching concept while Wang shared his feelings of playing under Marbury's instructions.

On June 28, 2019, Marbury officially took over to become the head coach of the Royal Fighters. It took him less than a year to turn one of the CBA's weakest teams – that's how they got the No. 1 draft pick – to today's playoff competitor.

Marbury played for the Royal Fighters in the last year of his career and he understood the importance of changing the team's culture. The Royal Fighters wanted to do better, but they started from a poor base. That's why Marbury stressed that "we don't get too high, we don't get too low, we just try to stay in the middle."

Wang, who was also a first-year rookie to professional basketball, said that Marbury gave him a lot of support during training and practice. "This is my first year in the CBA, you know, so I was not very confident. My goal this season was to stay on the court for 10 to 15 minutes, which was basic for regular rotation. But I did not expect that coach gave me a lot more than that," said Wang.

Marbury did not try to take all credit for the Royal Fighters' progress. He said that his players trained very hard to absorb and follow all the details about playing given to them. "Overall I just gave them my insight on basketball and how the game is supposed to be played," said Marbury.

When asked how he felt about Marbury's coaching style, Wang said that sometimes he could feel the coach expected him to do better than he already did. "He would keep pushing me, even when I was very exhausted or thought I couldn't do it anymore. He wanted me to challenge my limits," said Wang.

Marbury, during his careers in both the NBA and the CBA, has been known for refusing to give up. Now that he became a coach, he tried to make his players understand that only staying focused on the court and concentrating on training everyday would lead the team to victory. Of course there would be some games they lost, but you could always see where players could improve or if they were working hard enough for the win. "That's the professionalism I tried to get them to understand," said Marbury.

Wang admitted that he hit the rookie wall after five, six games this season. "I was not myself for several straight games. Then one day, after we practiced on the court, he (Marbury) reached out to me and we talked a lot alone. In short, he wanted me to shrug off the pressure and do everything I could. He told me not to be afraid of turnovers or missing shots. Just show the best of myself and enjoy the game," said Wang.