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By Sean Deveney - SportingNews
They liked calling Amare Stoudemire a man-child -- draft observers, reporters, general managers, scouts, even former Suns point guard Stephon Marbury. It seemed to fit. Man because, in the weeks before the 2002 draft, Stoudemire was already physically developed, standing 6-10 and weighing 245 pounds, the same height and weight at which is he listed now. Child because Stoudemire was 19 and and woefully inexperienced. He had played just two years of high school basketball and had trouble with such basics as pick-and-rolls and dribbling with his left hand. But those who called Stoudemire a man-child were only half right. He never really has been a child.
Stoudemire certainly was a man, though, on a Wednesday morning in May, five weeks before the '02 draft, when he showed up for a workout at the Suns' facility in Phoenix. It took about 20 minutes for Stoudemire to make the hair on the necks of the Suns' brass rise, with an explosive move to the hoop capped off with a WMD dunk. General manager Bryan Colangelo says it was "perhaps the best dunk ever seen in our building." Minutes later, Stoudemire caught forward Lee Benson, a 28-year-old draft hopeful who had spent eight years in prison, on the chin with an elbow. The force of the blow knocked out Benson's gold tooth, sending it sliding across the court.
Twenty minutes, one thunder-dunk and some wayward dentistry was all it took for Suns owner Jerry Colangelo to acknowledge to the other team executives, "This is our guy." Assistant general manager Mark West remembers someone at the workout wondering about the gamble of drafting someone so young. Jerry Colangelo said, "This guy is no gamble."
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That nongamble is paying off big in Phoenix, where Stoudemire has become the league's best young big man, despite playing out of position at center (he's a natural power forward). Stoudemire is a rare combination of pure power, smarts and offensive skill. Now in his third season, he has gotten better in just about every aspect of his game, and he will be making his first All-Star appearance. He is fifth in the NBA in scoring, at 26.1 points per game, and is shooting 57.5 percent, second in the league. He has become, as Spurs forward Malik Rose says, "just about unguardable. He's a can't-miss guy, the things he does."
But back in 2002, Stoudemire's can't-miss status was shaky. The Suns were just about alone in seeing Stoudemire as a gamble worth taking. He had shuffled through an array of high schools, including two failed stints in North Carolina, first at Mount Zion Christian Academy and then briefly at Emmanuel Christian -- which, as an HBO segment on Stoudemire revealed, turned out to be only one classroom of students, made up entirely of the basketball team. Stoudemire also shuffled through guardians because his mother and older brother were in jail. He had been academically ineligible his junior year and had led his team to a measly 16-13 record as a senior.
A source with the Warriors, who picked third that year, says there was sentiment within that organization to take a chance on Stoudemire because his talent was overwhelming. But the team passed because of his background. The same thing happened in Memphis, which picked fourth. And in Denver, which held picks Nos. 5 and 7. In all, seven teams passed on Stoudemire before the Suns grabbed him ninth.
Stoudemire smiles when remembering his draft day. "I wish I could have been a higher pick," he says. "Everyone would like to go as high as he can. But I know people were saying things about me that must have pushed me down. That's OK. Phoenix was a perfect situation for me."
The Suns were aware of Stoudemire's past and had access to the same information as every other team. But there was nothing in Stoudemire's behavior that raised a red flag -- perhaps those around him had courted trouble, but he had steadfastly avoided it. "He talked about learning from and growing stronger from a troubled past, and he never wavered from his statements about wanting to become one of the great players to play the game," Bryan Colangelo says. "Suffice it to say that with all the background research and due diligence performed, nothing about Amare left a doubt in our minds. We were ecstatic that he lasted to nine."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, the Suns are ecstatic to watch how quickly Stoudemire, now just 22, is making good on his potential. His performance in the first half of the season was dominant, and his presence is a key to the quick turnaround the Suns have made from a 29-53 season a year ago -- Stoudemire missed two months last season because of an ankle injury -- to this year's 39-12 mark. The addition of veteran point guard Steve Nash has had an obvious impact on Stoudemire and the other young Suns, but the individual improvement Stoudemire has demonstrated is equally obvious.
"I am sure it has helped to have Steve Nash there," says Bucks coach Terry Porter. "But he has added a shot from the perimeter and has been more patient. He is still aggressive, but he knows when to use it. Last year he was so righthanded dominant, you could play him to his right hand and you did not have to worry about the left. But now, he has obviously worked on his ballhandling. He will go left on you. If he keeps improving, at his age, who knows how good he can be?"
Improving his ballhandling was a secondary goal for Stoudemire last summer. He is comfortable with only a few dribbles before he risks a turnover, but that will get better with even more offseason work. What Stoudemire improved most last summer, despite spending more than a month working with the Olympic team, was his jump shot. Stoudemire says he spent hours each morning working on his range from 15 to 17 feet.
He already had established himself as one of the best power players in the league. Last year, defenders not only played Stoudemire to his right, they could afford to back off him because his outside shot was not a threat. But Stoudemire still was strong enough and quick enough with his first step to his right that he beat defenders anyway. "You knew what he was going to do, but he'd still do it," says Suns forward Bo Outlaw, who was with the Grizzlies last season. "Now, you back off him, and he's going to shoot it. And he can make it."
That shooting ability makes Stoudemire even more dangerous when working with Nash. The two have become the most fearsome pick-and-roll combo in the league because they have all the necessary ingredients to run the play: an agile big man who can catch, finish and shoot midrange jumpers and a point guard with pinpoint passing skill and money-in-the-bank shooting ability. The two hit it off on the court immediately -- they did not get a chance to play together until training camp opened, but they operate as if they've been teammates for years.
"It was just a natural fit," Nash says. "It's not like we had to go out and run it 500 times a day to figure it out. He's a big target, and he knows what to do when he gets the ball."
Stoudemire also is figuring out what to do when opponents get the ball. He still struggles on defense, but he has improved dramatically since his rookie year and is able to use his athleticism to make plays -- much as he did in Sacramento last week when he blocked Brad Miller's layup with less than a second remaining, preserving a 2-point win. Stoudemire has been willing to sacrifice for the team, playing out of position at center, and that's a key to the style that the high-scoring Suns have settled into. If Stoudemire is not as big as his opponent, it means he can easily beat him down the court in transition.
"I think I have an advantage over centers on both ends," Stoudemire says. "I have quickness and balance that a lot of those guys don't have. They can be bigger than me, but there are things I can do that they're not used to, whether it's run the floor or block a shot or get to a rebound that they didn't think I could get. And I think I can still get better with a lot of that stuff."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He can get better, and if his work last summer is any indication, he will. In the coming years, Stoudemire likely will become the best big man in the league, taking over for Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. That would not come as a complete surprise to him. "When I was in high school, I did not want to just get to the NBA," Stoudemire says. "I wanted to be the best in the NBA. I want to keep working to always make myself better."
That focus impresses everyone who works with Stoudemire. It stems from the loss of his father, Hazell, who died of a heart attack at age 41. Stoudemire was just 12, and it was then that the man-child became more man than child. Amare remembers the last thing his father told him: "The sky's the limit." It's as if Amare Stoudemire has spent his days since then trying to live up to that limit.
From the perspective of NBA teams, which have to be cold and calculating when it comes to draft choices, the day Stoudemire lost his father is the day the first red flag went up. Broken home. Then there was the rap sheet of Stoudemire's mother, Carrie, which included arrests for passing bad checks, fraud and theft. His brother, Hazell Jr., had been sentenced to three to nine years in a New York prison. Troubled family. There were also problems with Stoudemire's commitment to an Adidas-sponsored AAU team, which he ditched to join Nike in the summer of 2001. Then there was his trouble in finding a high school -- he attended Cypress Creek and West Orange in Florida, as well as Mt. Zion and Emmanuel Christian. Attracts controversy.
But what most teams could not see was that Stoudemire's past had made his focus laser-sharp. The trouble going on around him did not entice Stoudemire to get into trouble himself -- it did just the opposite. It made him more determined to avoid it.
"He's driven," says West, a former player who has been a mentor to Stoudemire. "That was obvious from the beginning. He was only 19 years old, but he was very focused on basketball. He has a single-mindedness when it comes to the game. He is able to shut out all the things going on around him.
"People were saying things about his character, pointing out where he was from and his background. But that has nothing to do with Amare. Everything that goes on around him, it just makes him focus on basketball more, and part of that flows right into his game. He's tough and strong, and he does not get into a lot of showboating stuff. You can see that in the way he plays."
You can also see it in the way he lives. Stoudemire has become an active part of the Suns organization and helped recruit Nash and swingman Quentin Richardson last summer. He has started his own car detailing business and has his mother and younger brother, Marwan, living nearby. There have been some agent problems -- Stoudemire was sued by his first agent, John Wolf, for money Wolf alleges he gave Stoudemire in high school, and Stoudemire was dropped by his second agent, Bill Duffy, because of business differences. That could have an impact on negotiations for a contract extension with the Suns this summer. But switching agents hardly qualifies as major trouble for an NBA star.
"I had to grow up fast," Stoudemire says. "I know what hard is, and coming to the league was not hard. Working to make yourself a better player, that's not hard, and that's all I want to do."
A gamble? Sounds like a sure thing.
They liked calling Amare Stoudemire a man-child -- draft observers, reporters, general managers, scouts, even former Suns point guard Stephon Marbury. It seemed to fit. Man because, in the weeks before the 2002 draft, Stoudemire was already physically developed, standing 6-10 and weighing 245 pounds, the same height and weight at which is he listed now. Child because Stoudemire was 19 and and woefully inexperienced. He had played just two years of high school basketball and had trouble with such basics as pick-and-rolls and dribbling with his left hand. But those who called Stoudemire a man-child were only half right. He never really has been a child.
Stoudemire certainly was a man, though, on a Wednesday morning in May, five weeks before the '02 draft, when he showed up for a workout at the Suns' facility in Phoenix. It took about 20 minutes for Stoudemire to make the hair on the necks of the Suns' brass rise, with an explosive move to the hoop capped off with a WMD dunk. General manager Bryan Colangelo says it was "perhaps the best dunk ever seen in our building." Minutes later, Stoudemire caught forward Lee Benson, a 28-year-old draft hopeful who had spent eight years in prison, on the chin with an elbow. The force of the blow knocked out Benson's gold tooth, sending it sliding across the court.
Twenty minutes, one thunder-dunk and some wayward dentistry was all it took for Suns owner Jerry Colangelo to acknowledge to the other team executives, "This is our guy." Assistant general manager Mark West remembers someone at the workout wondering about the gamble of drafting someone so young. Jerry Colangelo said, "This guy is no gamble."
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WomanMan
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ManWoman
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That nongamble is paying off big in Phoenix, where Stoudemire has become the league's best young big man, despite playing out of position at center (he's a natural power forward). Stoudemire is a rare combination of pure power, smarts and offensive skill. Now in his third season, he has gotten better in just about every aspect of his game, and he will be making his first All-Star appearance. He is fifth in the NBA in scoring, at 26.1 points per game, and is shooting 57.5 percent, second in the league. He has become, as Spurs forward Malik Rose says, "just about unguardable. He's a can't-miss guy, the things he does."
But back in 2002, Stoudemire's can't-miss status was shaky. The Suns were just about alone in seeing Stoudemire as a gamble worth taking. He had shuffled through an array of high schools, including two failed stints in North Carolina, first at Mount Zion Christian Academy and then briefly at Emmanuel Christian -- which, as an HBO segment on Stoudemire revealed, turned out to be only one classroom of students, made up entirely of the basketball team. Stoudemire also shuffled through guardians because his mother and older brother were in jail. He had been academically ineligible his junior year and had led his team to a measly 16-13 record as a senior.
A source with the Warriors, who picked third that year, says there was sentiment within that organization to take a chance on Stoudemire because his talent was overwhelming. But the team passed because of his background. The same thing happened in Memphis, which picked fourth. And in Denver, which held picks Nos. 5 and 7. In all, seven teams passed on Stoudemire before the Suns grabbed him ninth.
Stoudemire smiles when remembering his draft day. "I wish I could have been a higher pick," he says. "Everyone would like to go as high as he can. But I know people were saying things about me that must have pushed me down. That's OK. Phoenix was a perfect situation for me."
The Suns were aware of Stoudemire's past and had access to the same information as every other team. But there was nothing in Stoudemire's behavior that raised a red flag -- perhaps those around him had courted trouble, but he had steadfastly avoided it. "He talked about learning from and growing stronger from a troubled past, and he never wavered from his statements about wanting to become one of the great players to play the game," Bryan Colangelo says. "Suffice it to say that with all the background research and due diligence performed, nothing about Amare left a doubt in our minds. We were ecstatic that he lasted to nine."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, the Suns are ecstatic to watch how quickly Stoudemire, now just 22, is making good on his potential. His performance in the first half of the season was dominant, and his presence is a key to the quick turnaround the Suns have made from a 29-53 season a year ago -- Stoudemire missed two months last season because of an ankle injury -- to this year's 39-12 mark. The addition of veteran point guard Steve Nash has had an obvious impact on Stoudemire and the other young Suns, but the individual improvement Stoudemire has demonstrated is equally obvious.
"I am sure it has helped to have Steve Nash there," says Bucks coach Terry Porter. "But he has added a shot from the perimeter and has been more patient. He is still aggressive, but he knows when to use it. Last year he was so righthanded dominant, you could play him to his right hand and you did not have to worry about the left. But now, he has obviously worked on his ballhandling. He will go left on you. If he keeps improving, at his age, who knows how good he can be?"
Improving his ballhandling was a secondary goal for Stoudemire last summer. He is comfortable with only a few dribbles before he risks a turnover, but that will get better with even more offseason work. What Stoudemire improved most last summer, despite spending more than a month working with the Olympic team, was his jump shot. Stoudemire says he spent hours each morning working on his range from 15 to 17 feet.
He already had established himself as one of the best power players in the league. Last year, defenders not only played Stoudemire to his right, they could afford to back off him because his outside shot was not a threat. But Stoudemire still was strong enough and quick enough with his first step to his right that he beat defenders anyway. "You knew what he was going to do, but he'd still do it," says Suns forward Bo Outlaw, who was with the Grizzlies last season. "Now, you back off him, and he's going to shoot it. And he can make it."
That shooting ability makes Stoudemire even more dangerous when working with Nash. The two have become the most fearsome pick-and-roll combo in the league because they have all the necessary ingredients to run the play: an agile big man who can catch, finish and shoot midrange jumpers and a point guard with pinpoint passing skill and money-in-the-bank shooting ability. The two hit it off on the court immediately -- they did not get a chance to play together until training camp opened, but they operate as if they've been teammates for years.
"It was just a natural fit," Nash says. "It's not like we had to go out and run it 500 times a day to figure it out. He's a big target, and he knows what to do when he gets the ball."
Stoudemire also is figuring out what to do when opponents get the ball. He still struggles on defense, but he has improved dramatically since his rookie year and is able to use his athleticism to make plays -- much as he did in Sacramento last week when he blocked Brad Miller's layup with less than a second remaining, preserving a 2-point win. Stoudemire has been willing to sacrifice for the team, playing out of position at center, and that's a key to the style that the high-scoring Suns have settled into. If Stoudemire is not as big as his opponent, it means he can easily beat him down the court in transition.
"I think I have an advantage over centers on both ends," Stoudemire says. "I have quickness and balance that a lot of those guys don't have. They can be bigger than me, but there are things I can do that they're not used to, whether it's run the floor or block a shot or get to a rebound that they didn't think I could get. And I think I can still get better with a lot of that stuff."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He can get better, and if his work last summer is any indication, he will. In the coming years, Stoudemire likely will become the best big man in the league, taking over for Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. That would not come as a complete surprise to him. "When I was in high school, I did not want to just get to the NBA," Stoudemire says. "I wanted to be the best in the NBA. I want to keep working to always make myself better."
That focus impresses everyone who works with Stoudemire. It stems from the loss of his father, Hazell, who died of a heart attack at age 41. Stoudemire was just 12, and it was then that the man-child became more man than child. Amare remembers the last thing his father told him: "The sky's the limit." It's as if Amare Stoudemire has spent his days since then trying to live up to that limit.
From the perspective of NBA teams, which have to be cold and calculating when it comes to draft choices, the day Stoudemire lost his father is the day the first red flag went up. Broken home. Then there was the rap sheet of Stoudemire's mother, Carrie, which included arrests for passing bad checks, fraud and theft. His brother, Hazell Jr., had been sentenced to three to nine years in a New York prison. Troubled family. There were also problems with Stoudemire's commitment to an Adidas-sponsored AAU team, which he ditched to join Nike in the summer of 2001. Then there was his trouble in finding a high school -- he attended Cypress Creek and West Orange in Florida, as well as Mt. Zion and Emmanuel Christian. Attracts controversy.
But what most teams could not see was that Stoudemire's past had made his focus laser-sharp. The trouble going on around him did not entice Stoudemire to get into trouble himself -- it did just the opposite. It made him more determined to avoid it.
"He's driven," says West, a former player who has been a mentor to Stoudemire. "That was obvious from the beginning. He was only 19 years old, but he was very focused on basketball. He has a single-mindedness when it comes to the game. He is able to shut out all the things going on around him.
"People were saying things about his character, pointing out where he was from and his background. But that has nothing to do with Amare. Everything that goes on around him, it just makes him focus on basketball more, and part of that flows right into his game. He's tough and strong, and he does not get into a lot of showboating stuff. You can see that in the way he plays."
You can also see it in the way he lives. Stoudemire has become an active part of the Suns organization and helped recruit Nash and swingman Quentin Richardson last summer. He has started his own car detailing business and has his mother and younger brother, Marwan, living nearby. There have been some agent problems -- Stoudemire was sued by his first agent, John Wolf, for money Wolf alleges he gave Stoudemire in high school, and Stoudemire was dropped by his second agent, Bill Duffy, because of business differences. That could have an impact on negotiations for a contract extension with the Suns this summer. But switching agents hardly qualifies as major trouble for an NBA star.
"I had to grow up fast," Stoudemire says. "I know what hard is, and coming to the league was not hard. Working to make yourself a better player, that's not hard, and that's all I want to do."
A gamble? Sounds like a sure thing.
