Amare Wants Your Love and Admiration
Since the Shaq-for-Marion trade went down, Amare Stoudemire has been playing out of his mind. And it is mostly thanks to his Herculean efforts on a nightly basis that Phoenix was able to tread water until The Big Cactus could be integrated into the system.
With the Suns and Shaq having seemingly found their stride, Amare would now like some recognition.
“I don’t know what it is,” Stoudemire said. “I hear everybody’s name mentioned as far as the top players in the league. My name is never up there. It definitely hurts because I put in the work and the time and the effort to be an elite player. But my thing is just to keep improving. Whether they notice it or not, my teammates notice it, my coaching staff notices it, and we’re winning ballgames.”
At 24 ppg and 9rpg, Stoudemire is having the best season since his breakout 2004-2005 campaign. He’s an All-Star for as long as he wants to be one, and is arguably one of the top 3 power forwards in a stupefyingly stacked League. What more does he want?
It really is a wonder how Phoenix was able to be so successful over the last few years with egos as big as STAT and Shawn Marion’s.
52 Responses to “Amare Wants Your Love and Admiration”
Mar.18 at 9:05 am
Eboy says:
Perhaps play huge defense and develop a dominant post game and you can get a billion valentines to make your heart swoon, STATOMATIC.
Mar.18 at 9:07 am
thesubwayconnection says:
Agreed. He’s never learned to play defense and is still a foul waiting to happen. That’s a problem in the playoffs.
Mar.18 at 9:08 am
krod says:
First?!
Mar.18 at 9:09 am
Jamison says:
Sounds like Marion rubbed off on Amare in their time together.
Mar.18 at 9:12 am
TADOne says:
I thought Marion was the Sun with the huge ego? Like Eboy said, STAT needs to develop a go to post move and play some, ANY, defense.
Mar.18 at 9:20 am
JackBrown says:
Matrix Reloaded. I want to start a charity called Hugz4Starz where we can address these issues of insecurity and help keep superstar egos properly stroked. We’d send Amare a hug-a-gram/ YOU ARE GREAT, BUDDY! care package immediately.
Mar.18 at 9:21 am
riggs says:
matrix:reloaded
Mar.18 at 9:21 am
JackBrown says:
*For only 33 cents a day you too can make sure a superstar doesn’t have to worry about not getting their proper recognition. Sign up today.
Mar.18 at 9:24 am
Lz - Cphfinest3 says:
Like Fatboy and Metroconnection says, Stat has to get some sort of defense going. He’s probably among the softest PF’s in the league on that end. Also agree on the postmove part; he should take some notes from the Duncan or Malone manuals. If he sticks to his current game, he’s overall game will decline at the same pace as his athleticism. However his upside is huge, and he’s still young so let’s wait ( a little) and see before the final judgement.
For now David West is a much more complete PF (not saying he’s better though - Stat can be an absolute monster offensively).
Mar.18 at 9:30 am
Captain America says:
Agree with STAT. Shaq requires opposition to single coverage him, now he’s your team’s worst nightmare.
Mar.18 at 9:35 am
BETCATS says:
Dwight Howard, STAT 2 best big men in the L. Phoneix should trade for howard somehow.
Mar.18 at 9:47 am
Kevin says:
Nash is still the engine that makes the Phoenix Suns offense run so Stoudemire’s nuts for thinkin that he’ll get any MVP consideration before Nash does.. at this point in their careers at least..
Mar.18 at 10:29 am
mikey says:
Shaq is The Big Cactus…..Amare just sounds like a prick.
Mar.18 at 10:43 am
Dennis Castro says:
Whenever STAT scores a bucket, they should play “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake. Nice line mikey, and JackBrown, great idea. First you can start off with Hugz4Starz, then move over to Hugz4Thugz.
Mar.18 at 10:55 am
Logan Light says:
So STAT wants some love? Nothing wrong with that… what is wrong is him saying that he gets no recognition. Everyone knows he’s one of the top PF’s in the game right now. He’s developed nicely on the offensive end - that jumper he has is great. But to echo everyone else, I would like to see some more D other than the weakside blocks he pulls off. Any chance that Coach D is putting this in his players heads? “You’re not getting the love you need. You need to work harder. You need to make it known that you are a top player.” I mean really feeding them the underdog role. Then when they succeed and don’t get love, they voice it. Just a thought…
Mar.18 at 10:59 am
Jukai says:
First team all-NBA not good enough? It’s a good thing they brought in ego-free Shaq to that team.
Mar.18 at 11:03 am
Jolst says:
What an idiot. He wants us to go on our knees and yell his name? He’s got plenty of love.
Mar.18 at 11:59 am
riggs says:
i dont think he wants a yell jolst
Mar.18 at 12:00 pm
Paps says:
baby
Mar.18 at 12:06 pm
Tommy Patron says:
Some timely defensive rotations would be nice. Ostensibly, when Big Shaq steps up to challenge shots, we should see STAT gobbling up rebounds, but instead we see him choose not to block out, and watch others run past him towards the ball.
Mar.18 at 12:15 pm
Young Chris #3 says:
BETCATS has forgotten who Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are, apparently… They’ve been pretty good for the past eleven or so years, in case you’ve never heard of them…
Mar.18 at 12:20 pm
The Biz says:
What about Carlos Boozer ?
Mar.18 at 12:27 pm
RV says:
he’s a fantasy player, just like marion
Mar.18 at 12:27 pm
canadian says:
Amare. We like you. Your great. Everyone knows your name. Get to the finals and you’ll have all the recognition you can handle.
Mar.18 at 1:20 pm
Michael says:
Maybe he try and play defense.
Mar.18 at 2:05 pm
eyehatedirk says:
Cool, shouldn’t get upset. Kick a hole in the speaker……..ah, nevermind. Hopefully it’ll drive him to work harder if he feels so underappreciated.
Mar.18 at 2:22 pm
Kadavour says:
Whoa, easy with that David West comparison. He doesn’t do enough banging under the boards to get that “better than STAT” consideration. I feel that he’s by and large a product of Chris Paul and i dare say that he’d do better in the Suns system with Nash. STAT’s athleticism puts him above most others at his position, but he lacks the drive on both sides as everyone else mentioned, but its not like West is a defensive Juggernaut of any kind himself.
Mar.18 at 2:29 pm
Ben Osborne says:
I interviewed him the other day for an upcoming SLAM story and none of this was evident. Not sure which is the real Amare, but it’s interesting…
Mar.18 at 3:31 pm
J-bird says:
You can tell a laker fan wrote this article. Amare is a beast and definitley deserves more pub.
Mar.18 at 3:45 pm
Trent says:
If you read the full article in the AZ Republic, Shaq said, “I’ve been telling him that he needs to take it as a sign of disrespect when you, the media people, don’t mention his name like you do the Garnetts and the Dwight Howards,” O’Neal said. “In any basic karate movie or any Mafia movie, in order for you to get to the top, you have to take out the top guy. You have to go after what they do. . . . He has to let the world know who Amaré Stoudemire is.”
Mar.18 at 3:54 pm
what says:
Over/under 2 years before Amare gets traded to some horrendous Eastern Conference team for a declining veteran and sees his fantasy stats go way down.
Mar.18 at 4:39 pm
Slobodan Chutzpah says:
I’m with you, JackBrown. You can’t be considered great if you don’t know how to defend, don’t make your team-mates better (1.3 assists per game!) and don’t have a go-to move. Leaving it all on the floor every once in a while wouldn’t hurt either.
Mar.18 at 4:51 pm
Slobodan Chutzpah says:
Also, the fact that someone would even try to suggest he’s a top 3 power forward only goes to show how much NBA discussion is skewed toward big offensive numbers. (You cannot be a top 3 PF while failing to play any defense at all!)
Mar.18 at 4:59 pm
SwingMan says:
Egos? Yeah, like a Laker fan ought to be talking about another team’s inflated egos. LMAO!!!!! Toolage…..
Mar.18 at 5:49 pm
Bro. D. says:
David West was getting pretty good b4 cp3 arrived if i remember correctly.
Mar.18 at 6:16 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Poor Amare. I genuinely feel for him. If only he chose a profession where he’d be shown more appreciation. I might cry myself to sleep tonight.
Mar.18 at 6:23 pm
Shooter #9 - Brasil says:
Jack Brown was perfect
this kids are nuts… maybe thats 1 of the billion reasons you should go to school before the megabucks
Mar.18 at 7:01 pm
Beth says:
Just put him on the cover.
Mar.18 at 7:03 pm
Beth says:
And he got the recognition last season but now that he’s improved THIS season, he still wants the love…that’s just human nature to always want the pat on the back…damn psychology classes…
Mar.18 at 8:15 pm
Vahid says:
Those of you painting Amare as an ego-maniacal crybaby are way, way off base. Look at the quote; there’s no “crying” going on - he’s simply using his perceived lack of recognition as a motivational tool to improve. And improve he will; the last time people doubted Amare Stoudemire was during the 05-06 season, saying he wasn’t putting in the necessary effort to come back strong from microfracture surgery. How did that turn out? And those of you who continue to say Amare’s numbers are a product of Steve Nash are WAY off base. Three years ago you may have been partially correct, but if you actually watch Stoudemire play you would know that he is not only a top-5 finisher in the NBA, but he now has a near-automatic mid-range jumper. His lack of recognition can simply be attributed to his playing alongside Steve Nash. Realistically, he will not be considered as an MVP candidate until Nash is gone.
Mar.18 at 9:47 pm
Sesa says:
and now, Shaq had to defend 2 person in order to cover for Amare lack of willingness to defend. The guy are willing to block some shots, but to man-to-man defense…
Mar.18 at 11:09 pm
whooo! says:
you can get by as a top sg or pg without playing defense, as some ppl look over it. you simply cannot get by as a post player who gives up so much on defense. his block shot stats are so misleading because he gets a couple of those weakside blocks in a game where the other team is chucking up a lot, whereas guys like duncan/kg, even if they don’t get a block, are altering shots all the time. amare gets blocks, he doesn’t ALTER shots on defense consistently.
Mar.18 at 11:12 pm
whooo! says:
and amare’s ego is ridiculous too. he really feels he’s the best big man in the league, period. you wanna PLAY with that attitude, but i read an interview and they were asking him about shaq’s quotes that he was gonna take amare to the next level, that he was gonna make him better. when asked about the new ‘mentor’, amare brusehd it off politely saying he doesn’t need a mentor, he’s already pretty good now. what kind of response is that!? you haven’t done sh*t in this league yet in the big picture (all-nba, mvp, RINGS), and you’re brushing off the notion of mentorship or help from the most dominant ever?
Mar.19 at 12:37 am
Logan says:
ho hum….now that marion is out of the picture, time for amare to fill in the crybaby role..
Mar.19 at 1:03 am
hursty says:
urgh. he is good though.
Mar.19 at 1:34 am
Vahid says:
to whooo!: What’s he supposed to say? The same robotic response 90% of the league would give? “Yeah, I’m honored to play with the Diesel. Go ahead and attribute everything I accomplish to his mere presence, never mind the countless hours I spend in the gym. What am I doing standing here? I should be on my knees over by Shaq’s locker!” Seriously.
Mar.19 at 10:35 am
Logan Light says:
and there you go… STAT got 31 from Aldridge last night. Sheesh.
Mar.19 at 2:59 pm
Beth says:
I agree with Vahid…
Plus, Amare doesn’t have those on his coaching staff that encourage defense either…
So who gives a damn how he blocks shots and why, a block is a block to me, just like a steal is a steal. There isn’t a separate column on the stat sheet with weakside blocks or altered shots…please…
Mar.19 at 3:02 pm
Beth says:
Hmmm 25 and 7 in 26 minutes…sweet. And the win…I think that’s what ACTUALLY matters…
Mar.19 at 5:30 pm
whooo! says:
Beth, i dunno if you get the point of my argument over stats. It’s like a guy who can scoring 20 pts in garbage time blowouts vs 20 pts and winning. amare can get 2 blocks a game let’s say. but watching him play, it’s more like on those 2 possessions, he played good defense. with duncan/kg/camby, they might get 2 blocks too, but that doesn’t mean they’re equal. you don’t need a block to play good defense, and that means altering shots, making you miss, making you pass. think of battier’s defense on kobe the other night - he had 1 block, but played amazing defense. a block is a block, but a block doesn’t necessarily reflect good defense.
Mar.19 at 5:34 pm
whooo! says:
and Vahid, no, i don’t expect the type of extreme you gave. why is it always extremes to prove a point? shaq himself was saying how nash is an mvp and all that praise. the truth is, shaq IS helping amare’s game just by his mere presence on the floor, we all know that. and he has more to offer in guiding amare how to win (though hopefully he never gives tips on conditioning and coasting throughout regular seasons). amare’s good, but he’s got a LOT he needs to do, and if i was a big suns fan, i’d be a little disappointed that he doesn’t see this. like Beth says, i totally agree the coaches don’t stress defense, so he never builds it up. but we all know he needed to play d and rebound for them to win, but instead he comes back this year having worked on a 3pt shot! guidance is huge for development of a player.
May.9 at 6:38 am
tom fary says:
amare is a gun
amare is a gun
amare is a gun
amare is a gun
amare is a gun
amare is a gun
amare is a gun
amare is a gun