Amare Stoudemire NYT Mag piece 

Amare Stoudemire NYT Mag piece

The New York Times Magazine has a fascinating article on Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns, last year's NBA Rookie of the Year who entered the league straight out of high school and succeeded despite numerous major family problems. Undoubtedly the story of Stoudemire's transition will be closely studied by the Cleveland Cavaliers (a lock to take prep star LeBron James with the #1 pick in Thursday's draft) and other teams that select high schoolers.

The article is a good overview of Stoudemire's background, and it explains some of the things going on around him that otherwise don't make much sense without the context. In a recent column ranking the players with highest trade values, Bill Simmons wrote that he saw some warning signs for Amare's future:

"10. Amare Stoudemire -- Back in my single days, my buddy Joe House and I developed "The Other Shoe" theory, which centers around the premise that 'All women should be considered crazy until proven otherwise.' Whenever one of us started hanging out with somebody, the other would always ask, 'Did the other shoe drop yet?' In other words, did the new girl have any visible baggage? Was she hiding a trait that could potentially submarine the entire relationship? Was she way too close to her family? Was she secretly nuts? You'd be amazed how many times the other shoe ended up dropping.

"So what does this have to do with Amare Stoudemire? Well, during the middle of his rookie season -- the one in which he won "Rookie of the Year" and evoked comparisons to Moses Malone and Roy Tarpley -- his agent actually quit. Just threw up his hands and said, 'You know what, I've had enough of this guy, have someone else be your agent when you're signing for $80 million in three years.' That's a little disconcerting, no? And given that Amare played for about 19 high schools, and given that seven teams happily passed on him in last year's draft ... well, let's see where the other shoe drops with him before he moves into the 'Untouchables.'"

The agent's quitting is covered in the NYT article--basically he was abused by Amare's mother.

LeBron, by the way, had his first practice with the Cavs today. Apparently coach Paul Silas is going to play him at point guard in the summer league (James is expected to appear in the Boston summer league next month!). Another interesting tidbit I heard on SportsCenter is that in his interview with Bob Costas tonight (which airs in about 2 hours on HBO), James, when asked if his allegiance lies with Nike or the Cavs, responds that he's about "50-50."

I know the Tony Kornheisers of the world will jump on that statement (actually I bet he did on PTI today--didn't see the show), but when will there actually be a situation when James has to choose between the two? Keeping the endorsements and the competition separated should work out.

Anyway, the draft is Thursday, and in ESPN's latest mock draft the Celtics are taking some Greek guy at #16 and an Alabama point guard who played two years of college at #20. This will be ESPN's first year of covering the event. Too bad we won't get to see Charles Barkley's hijinks this time around.