The next 24-hours of headline space on this blog will be dedicated to Amare Stoudemire. This is subject, of course, to the continuing lack of major news announcements such as "Suns Find Big Man Replacement for Kurt Thomas", or anything else that would naturally be expected to bring our self-proclaimed Amare Day to a premature end. But barring said major announcements, Amare will get the top spot here for the next 24 hours. I don't care if Steve Nash is playing soccer with the locals again in New York, or if Reggie Miller is contemplating un-retirement to play for the Celtics, or if Jermaine O'Neal changes his mind (again) about whether or not he wants to be traded (personally, I think guys who make public trade demands are their own special breed of NBA head case, but I'm not going to write about that either). This is Amare Day, period.
So, why is this Amare Day? Well, there's a lot going on with him right now. Not only is Amare going to help cut the ribbon on the new Suns.com Newsroom approximately 12 hours from now, he's also the subject of a really nice article by Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic. And if all that wasn't enough, he will be featured on the cover of Sony's NBA '08, plus, he'll soon be headed to Las Vegas to practice with Team USA. But those aren't the only reasons this day belongs to him.
Amare has a well-documented history as someone who has not only survived a hellacious childhood, but has also risen above it to overcome virtually any obstacle in his path. I'm thinking one day soon, those vanquished obstacles will include David Stern and the Spurs. In the meantime, it sounds like Amare is really enjoying his summer in the Valley, spending time at school, working out with the Suns' training staff, and even playing some soccer (I reckon it's just a matter of time before the entire team will be making soccer a regular part of their off-season training). Which brings us to the most important reason why this is Amare's day. If the following quote from Boivin's article doesn't make Suns fans smile from ear-to-ear, I don't know what will:
A Few Quick Facts about Amare (from Wikipedia and Amare's web site):
Full Name: Amare Carsares Stoudemire
Birth Date: November 16, 1982 (Lake Wales, Florida)
High School: Cypress Creek High School, Orlando
Height: 6'10"
Weight: 245lbs
Shoe Size: 17
Charity: Amare Stoudemire Foundation, "Each 1, Teach 1"
Official Web Site: ThatsAmare.com
MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/thatsamare