Reality Check

Ahh, yes, the internet. A gateway to so many amazing things.

And yet for every single one of these amazing items on the internet, there are at least 10 that are not-so-amazing.

Here's perhaps the latest and greatest of those — former NBA player Stephon Marbury's self-produced reality television show — Starbury TV.

It lends nearly 24/7 access to the life of Stephon Marbury to anyone with an internet connection and a computer.

Sounds pretty intriguing doesn't it? Exciting? Maybe entertaining even?

It might very well be all three of those things. But it only takes a half-hour of watching Marbury's shenanigans to see it qualifies all three of those adjectives for all the wrong reasons.

Those shenanigans include but are not limited to: Marbury ingesting Vaseline (new Vaseline commercial featuring Stephon Marbury - you can EAT it too!) , random prayer (which often leads to full-out crying), and drunken dancing (which is possibly the most entertaining thing I've seen yet on the stream).

Don't get me wrong, it's good for a laugh. It's not a complete sob-story, and surely not as dramatic as ESPN's J.A. Adande makes it out to be. Perhaps Marbury really is just doing it for the publicity. He's gotten plenty of that, such as Adande's front-page story on ESPN.com, or even tweets from Shaquille O'Neal regarding Marbury's baffling behavior. I honestly hope it's just for the publicity. It would be better for Steph. A self-absorbed production? Surely.

But much better than the alternative — Marbury has legitimately lost his marbles.

Unfortunately it's a legitimate possibility. Hearing him say he is "covered in the blood of Christ," one has to wonder, and can only hope Steph is truly alright.

THE T.O. SHOW

No it's not Owens' new VH1 reality show I'm referring to, it's his USTREAM account. While T.O. didn't make the smartest move by failing to differentiate his stream from his television show, his broadcasts do a much better job of lending a down-to-earth look at a pro athlete than do Marbury's or Ocho Cinco's.

Granted, it's probably jumping the gun on this one, as at this time Owens has only made one streaming appearance. For all I know, he may never do it again. But after seeing T.O. constantly say "I'm liking this USTREAM," it's very likely that #81 will continue to use it.

Instead of self-promotion or ridiculous triple-dog-dare type acts, Owens focused his time on simply interacting with his fans in the form of answering questions and giving shoutouts.

His stream, coupled with his new reality show, may simply be a well-played PR ploy by Owens and his publicists. It even probably is.

Nonetheless, hats off to T.O. — well played.

THE OCHO CINCO SHOW

You really thought Chad Ocho Cinco, would let guys like Marbury and T.O. get away with all the live streaming fun?

Apparently you aren't very familiar with the Cincinnati Bengals wide-out formerly known as Chad Johnson.

Chad's product is a mixing of the styles of both Marbury's and Owens' shows. It promotes the same kind of fan interactivity as T.O.'s streams do, but also contains a lot of nonsensical rambling — ala Starbury.

Chad could be seen late Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning urging his viewers to not goto work tomorrow. He said he would do the same, implying an absence from Training Camp (satire on yourself much?).

Instead of focusing on camp, Ocho Cinco was more interested in getting slogan ideas from the hundreds of viewers peeping his USTREAM. But is it really that surprising that Ocho Cinco is more concerned with branding himself than preparing himself to have a successful football season?

LINKS

Regardless of whatever negative things I may have had to say about any three of these streams, they are all worth a good watch. Marbury's feed is virtually 24/7, while you'll have to catch T.O. and Ocho Cinco at specific times — follow their twitters and look for tweets regarding when they're streaming.

Starbury TV, featuring Stephon Marbury
Starbury on Twitter

The Ocho Cinco Show, featuring Chad Ocho Cinco
Ocho Cinco on Twitter

The T.O. Show, featuring Terrell Owens
T.O. on Twitter

photo credit to ESPN.com/Shareif Ziyadat/FilmMagic