Sunburn
ASFN Lifer
Guys, check this out and give me your thoughts. According to this writer from the Oregonian, Amare has been baiting and roughing up the Blazers, perhaps to the point of genius. What??? To me, it has looked like the exact opposite the entire series. Do I have homer glasses on? Do they? Can homerism really affect perception this much?
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...are_stoude.html?utm_source=bleacherreport.com
Canzano: Watch for Amare Stoudemire's next antic and see how the Blazers react
By John Canzano, The Oregonian
April 25, 2010, 9:03PM
If he wins. Then, they will lose.
So don't let him win.
Something like that.
Stoudemire has been lobbing verbal darts at the Blazers throughout the series. And there was the elbow job that whiffed just under LaMarcus Aldridge's chin in Game 3. And also, Stoudemire walked up behind Nicolas Batum as he shot a free-throw late in Game 4 and pushed his left elbow into the back of Batum's already injured right shoulder.
The act set Batum off. It set fans inside the Rose Garden who saw it off, too. Of course, Batum retaliated by shoving Stoudemire and shouting and pointing at him. The game officials saw that and subsequently slapped the Blazers small forward with a technical foul. After the game, Batum was sitting on a stool by his locker still steaming about it.
"Cheap," he said. "He hit me hard enough for me to really feel it." And then Batum rose to his feet, squared his elbows up and performed his best elbow-throwing impression of the Suns 6-foot-10 forward.
What did Stoudemire say about the incident?
"I didn't hit him on purpose. Just fixing my goggles, man."
So yeah. Welcome to the game within the game. It features Stoudemire, who is either a bumbling idiot who doesn't know when to stop or a brilliant tactician who knows exactly what he's doing, depending on who you ask.
The faction of people who believe Stoudemire's act to be woefully ignorant and accidental point out that the Suns routinely station a public relations worker near his locker postgame and eavesdrop on his confusing, and sometimes inflammatory, answers.
Early in the Blazers-Suns playoff series, Stoudemire was asked whether Portland center Marcus Camby, who had 17 rebounds in Game 1, was one of the best centers he'd faced this season. And Stoudemire announced that Camby was not. Then, he proceeded to list all the reasons why the Blazers big man was "just OK," to which the Suns official off to the side offered Stoudemire a nudge, and a quiet suggestion of: "Yes, Camby is one of the best I've faced."
Stoudemire didn't change his answer. But hey, you can't blame the Suns. At the very least, they've decided they're going to do what they can to avoid a Stoudemire-induced storm.
This is the same guy who posed shirtless for an anti-fur PETA advertisement because he loves his dog, and offered this quote: "I wouldn't want to see anything cruel ... happen to any animals just for ... fashion."
Of course not.
Now, the faction of people who believe Stoudemire to be a tactical man who knows exactly what he's doing have watched the big guy shove and bait Aldridge and nudge Batum. Also, after Game 4, the center declared that Brandon Roy's inspiring return from injury was not a difference maker for the opposition.
"He's an OK player, I mean he's an All-Star and stuff, I guess," Stoudemire said. "But he didn't beat us. The only one capable of beating us is us."
Keep in mind, this is a person who suffered a detached retina in 2009 and last July was placed face-down by doctors for 10 consecutive days -- 22 hours a day -- to let the fluid drain from the eye during rehabilitation.
That's a lot of thinking for one individual.
Ask him about it, and Stoudemire will tell you that he thinks about the tedious and painful rehabilitation every time he puts his goggles on. So maybe that explains why he was so rigid and focused when he bumped into Batum from behind. Or when he ripped the ball from Roy's hands after a jump ball was called in the second half.
Or maybe it doesn't explain a thing.
By the way, it was Stoudemire who delivered the harshest physical blow to the recovering Roy on Saturday, knocking the Blazers guard down and blocking his shot on a drive to the basket.
Tiana Bardwell, Roy's fiancee and the mother of his two children, was in the Rose Garden for Game 4, holding her breath as Brandon was flattened. She said she saw Roy pummeled by Stoudemire and said, "I just kept saying, 'get up, get up, get up.'"
Roy got up. The Blazers won. And the series is tied. And that's only to say that Portland has played the Suns even in this series, even except for the occasional lapses they've encountered attempting to deal with the Suns forward.
Ignore him?
Hardly.
He had 26 points, six rebounds, knocked down Roy and set off the mild-mannered Batum in Game 4. Earlier in the series, he got under Aldridge's skin. The Blazers are going to have to deal with the guy, and not allow Stoudemire to intimidate them, and while that may mean turning the proverbial other cheek, it does not mean backing down.
Figure him out?
Forget it.
We've got a maximum of three games left in the best-of-seven series and Phoenix fans who have known Stoudemire for years have given up trying to solve him and adopted a "To know Amare is to understand what comes from his mouth" philosophy.
Something tells me if the Blazers keep their poise, watch for flying elbows and stand their ground, refusing to back down but also refusing to let him set them off, Stoudemire will eventually become his own worst enemy. What the Blazers can not do is allow Stoudemire to distract them from the task at hand. That would be winning two more games, and controlling the paint, and dodging the elbows that he throws adjusting his goggles and such.
What do you do with a big guy who keeps taking bites at you?
You let him cannibalize himself.
Stoudemire's impact in this series is up to the Blazers now.
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...are_stoude.html?utm_source=bleacherreport.com
Canzano: Watch for Amare Stoudemire's next antic and see how the Blazers react
By John Canzano, The Oregonian
April 25, 2010, 9:03PM
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Jamie Francis, The OregonianThe Phoenix Suns' Amar'e Stoudemire argues a call during Game 4 of the NBA playoffs. I suppose the temptation today is to declare the primitive gamesmanship of Amare Stoudemire a simple matter for the Trail Blazers. If he wins. Then, they will lose.
So don't let him win.
Something like that.
Stoudemire has been lobbing verbal darts at the Blazers throughout the series. And there was the elbow job that whiffed just under LaMarcus Aldridge's chin in Game 3. And also, Stoudemire walked up behind Nicolas Batum as he shot a free-throw late in Game 4 and pushed his left elbow into the back of Batum's already injured right shoulder.
The act set Batum off. It set fans inside the Rose Garden who saw it off, too. Of course, Batum retaliated by shoving Stoudemire and shouting and pointing at him. The game officials saw that and subsequently slapped the Blazers small forward with a technical foul. After the game, Batum was sitting on a stool by his locker still steaming about it.
"Cheap," he said. "He hit me hard enough for me to really feel it." And then Batum rose to his feet, squared his elbows up and performed his best elbow-throwing impression of the Suns 6-foot-10 forward.
What did Stoudemire say about the incident?
"I didn't hit him on purpose. Just fixing my goggles, man."
So yeah. Welcome to the game within the game. It features Stoudemire, who is either a bumbling idiot who doesn't know when to stop or a brilliant tactician who knows exactly what he's doing, depending on who you ask.
The faction of people who believe Stoudemire's act to be woefully ignorant and accidental point out that the Suns routinely station a public relations worker near his locker postgame and eavesdrop on his confusing, and sometimes inflammatory, answers.
Early in the Blazers-Suns playoff series, Stoudemire was asked whether Portland center Marcus Camby, who had 17 rebounds in Game 1, was one of the best centers he'd faced this season. And Stoudemire announced that Camby was not. Then, he proceeded to list all the reasons why the Blazers big man was "just OK," to which the Suns official off to the side offered Stoudemire a nudge, and a quiet suggestion of: "Yes, Camby is one of the best I've faced."
Stoudemire didn't change his answer. But hey, you can't blame the Suns. At the very least, they've decided they're going to do what they can to avoid a Stoudemire-induced storm.
This is the same guy who posed shirtless for an anti-fur PETA advertisement because he loves his dog, and offered this quote: "I wouldn't want to see anything cruel ... happen to any animals just for ... fashion."
Of course not.
Now, the faction of people who believe Stoudemire to be a tactical man who knows exactly what he's doing have watched the big guy shove and bait Aldridge and nudge Batum. Also, after Game 4, the center declared that Brandon Roy's inspiring return from injury was not a difference maker for the opposition.
"He's an OK player, I mean he's an All-Star and stuff, I guess," Stoudemire said. "But he didn't beat us. The only one capable of beating us is us."
Keep in mind, this is a person who suffered a detached retina in 2009 and last July was placed face-down by doctors for 10 consecutive days -- 22 hours a day -- to let the fluid drain from the eye during rehabilitation.
That's a lot of thinking for one individual.
Ask him about it, and Stoudemire will tell you that he thinks about the tedious and painful rehabilitation every time he puts his goggles on. So maybe that explains why he was so rigid and focused when he bumped into Batum from behind. Or when he ripped the ball from Roy's hands after a jump ball was called in the second half.
Or maybe it doesn't explain a thing.
By the way, it was Stoudemire who delivered the harshest physical blow to the recovering Roy on Saturday, knocking the Blazers guard down and blocking his shot on a drive to the basket.
Tiana Bardwell, Roy's fiancee and the mother of his two children, was in the Rose Garden for Game 4, holding her breath as Brandon was flattened. She said she saw Roy pummeled by Stoudemire and said, "I just kept saying, 'get up, get up, get up.'"
Roy got up. The Blazers won. And the series is tied. And that's only to say that Portland has played the Suns even in this series, even except for the occasional lapses they've encountered attempting to deal with the Suns forward.
Ignore him?
Hardly.
He had 26 points, six rebounds, knocked down Roy and set off the mild-mannered Batum in Game 4. Earlier in the series, he got under Aldridge's skin. The Blazers are going to have to deal with the guy, and not allow Stoudemire to intimidate them, and while that may mean turning the proverbial other cheek, it does not mean backing down.
Figure him out?
Forget it.
We've got a maximum of three games left in the best-of-seven series and Phoenix fans who have known Stoudemire for years have given up trying to solve him and adopted a "To know Amare is to understand what comes from his mouth" philosophy.
Something tells me if the Blazers keep their poise, watch for flying elbows and stand their ground, refusing to back down but also refusing to let him set them off, Stoudemire will eventually become his own worst enemy. What the Blazers can not do is allow Stoudemire to distract them from the task at hand. That would be winning two more games, and controlling the paint, and dodging the elbows that he throws adjusting his goggles and such.
What do you do with a big guy who keeps taking bites at you?
You let him cannibalize himself.
Stoudemire's impact in this series is up to the Blazers now.
