Amare interview--Katrina game

[F-Dog]

http://slamonline.com/links/09052005/

According to Kenny...each player will be donating a minimum of $10,000 for goods that they will personally hand out to shelters around the Houston area...Amare already had $100,000 worth of trucks filled with goods going down to help out and donate.

Amare's only one of the players being interviewed, so if you don't care about the other players , here are his own quotes:

“What happened down in New Orleans really hit home. I feel very bad about the situation and I want to help out as much as I can. That’s the main reason why I want to donate money to the families and children.”

"For us, this is about raising their confidence (the evacuees). They're feeling real bad about themselves right now. So we can give them confidence, keep them focused, give them hope to want to stay alive. They gotta realize how blessed they were to make it out of that situation. They lost family, but they are the chosen ones that made it out of that situation so they just have to realize that and try to look at the positive things right now. The main thing is for them to stay focused and keep their heads up - especially the kids.”

They let me ask a question, so I asked if since they'd all played in and visited New Orleans, this disaster struck any of them more personally than it otherwise might have. Amare doesn't really answer the question but he gives a great answer anyway, saying it hit him personally because "I've been in a situation as kid where I didn't have a household to go to, and when I see those faces of those kids down there it makes me want to get involved, to donate money and products to get involved."

It seems like this is more than a publicity move for Amare.

Edit: I extended the first two quotes, using another article from Inside Hoops. They've got a slightly different version of the last quote:

“It hit me personally because I’ve been in that type of situation when I was a kid, when I really didn’t have a household to go to. It’s not easy making that transition. When I see those families and kids down there, I see myself. That’s one of the main reasons I’m really trying to get a lot of companies involved to send some trucks down there and donate some money or products for these kids and families.”

 

[goldseraph]

Amare is awesome... I don't get too worked up over sports stars but I'm a big fan of Amare as a person first and then a player. He played HS ball at Cypress Creek which is abotu 20 mins from me, so I got to hear lots of stories about him before he was even drafted. That he survived his very troubled childhood and many, many moves to different school. Then when the Suns drafted him it was so sweet because I was already a huge Suns fan and a huge Amare fan. Glad to see sports stars donating money , and VERY glad we've got Amare.