Amare Stoudemire: The best bigs in the league – NBA Feature (Part 4)
Amare Stoudemire:
Amare Stoudemire is one of those rare players who were so good that they were picked directly from high school. However unlike Kwame Brown, who was drafted as the number one pick a year earlier, Stoudemire lived up to the expectations.
He shone in his very first year and won the rookie of the year award in 2003, finishing the season with an average of 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game including his season high 38 points against Minnesota Timberwolves.
The 6 ft 10 started his career with Phoenix Suns and has played a pivotal role in almost all the major games Suns have played since then. During the 2004-2005 season, he along with Steve Nash led Suns to 62-20 record. He averaged
mammoth 26 points per game that season and also achieved his new career high 50 points in the game against Portland Trail Blazers on January 2nd 2005.
In the western conference finals the same year against San Antonio Spurs, Stoudemire performed outstandingly averaging 37points per game in the series but unfortunately failed to inspire his other team mates as Phoenix Suns lost
5 matches to the Spurs.
Stoudemire did not take part in the next season due to Knee injury which took a lot of time to heel. Next season he made a comeback and rocked the court again with his fierce game.
Amar’e is a nightmare for every opponent team as he has ability to score consistently. It’s difficult to adopt a defensive strategy against him because of his versatility.
In his last season with Phoenix Suns in 2009-2010, Amar’e aided his team levelling the Conference final series 2-2 against the Los Angeles Lakers by scoring 42 points in the third and 21 points in the fourth game. However, Phoenix
eventually lost the series 4-2 in the end.
In 2010, he called it quits from Phoenix and moved to New York Knicks and immediately made an impression by scoring 30 points against Boston Celtics. He was outstanding again throughout the series and ended with an average of 25.3
points and 8.2 rebounds.
There is still a lot of fuel left in Stoudemire’s body and he can single handedly take New York Knicks to a new level if he sticks with the team.
Tags: