Amare Stoudemire to pay Hakeem Olajuwon $100,000 for two weeks of post work – NBA Update
After missing out a big chunk of last season due to injuries, Amare’ Stoudemire wants to put what was the worst year of his career since his rookie days behind him. The first step taken by the former All-Star has been to develop
his post up game and in order to be fully successful, the power forward will spend two weeks next month training with NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston.
The announcement of the training session was made last month and when Stoudemire takes to practice with Olajuwon in August, he is expected to pay a hefty price. According to several reports, Stoudemire is set to pay Olajuwon $100,000
and in return, he hopes to see significant improvement in his post up skills.
In the past few years, other star players in NBA have also worked out with Olajuwon and have shown improvements almost instantly. Olajuwon has passed on his knowledge and skills to the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and LeBron
James and now Stoudemire is due on the list of players ready be considered an apprentice of the NBA legend.
In his playing days back in the 90’s, Olajuwon was without a doubt one of the most feared post up players. He is more commonly known as ‘The Dream’ because of his exploits in the painted area.
These sessions can be highly beneficial for Stoudemire who has been reluctant to play deep in the paint ever since injuries started to mount. He showed shades of what he can do when he helped the New York Knicks get their lone
win against Miami Heat in their first round of playoffs last season.
At that time, he was desperate to prove himself and it will be the same will and fire which the Knicks power forward needs to develop on a more consistent basis. It is believed that the new Knicks coach Mike Woodson who asked former
team-mate Olajuwon to help Stoudemire be more effective in the post.
One major reason for Stoudemire losing his pedigree has been the arrival of Carmelo Anthony. When Amare arrived in New York he was the go-to man, be it in on the perimeter or down low. Anthony’s presence ensured that Stoudemire
only got the ball in the paint, and had to improve his game there.
An absence of a quality point guard also took its toll on Amare’s numbers, but the Knicks have more than covered that base in the off season after acquiring Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton.
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