For 14 NBA seasons, Amar’e Stoudemire stood tall and talented, and on Saturday night at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts, he stood with the greats as he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Stoudemire, nicknamed S.T.A.T. (Standing Tall and Talented), was presented by Hall of Famers Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Steve Nash, Jerry Colangelo, Mike D’Antoni, and Rick Welts.
Joining Stoudemire in the Hall of Fame were players Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw; coaches Doc Rivers, Mike D’Antoni and Mark Few; referee Joey Crawford; and the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team.
Stoudemire, the ninth overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Suns from high school, came into the league with freakish athleticism for a man his size (6-foot-10), which helped him routinely dunk on opponents and eventually win NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003.
According to Stoudemire, he started dunking on his opponents at age 13 in Central Florida, and the buzz around him grew from there.
“The Orlando Magic became an expansion team, and they created this program called the Junior Magic,” Stoudemire explained. “When the Junior Magic came about, and we had this game in Lake Wales, I played my first game as a 13-year-old. I got the ball, I took off, I dunked it. The crowd went crazy as if they’d never seen a 13-year-old dunk on someone before, and from that point on, my name started buzzing around my local neighborhood.”
Over his NBA career, Stoudemire had to battle many challenges to reach the Hall of Fame, including injuries. After leading the Suns to the Western Conference Finals in 2005, Stoudemire suffered a knee injury that led to microfracture surgery. Some NBA players never seemed to recover after microfracture surgery.
However, Stoudemire was different.
After playing in only three games in the 2005-06 season, the six-time All-Star came back the following season and became an All-Star once again.
Stoudemire’s road back to All-Star form required perseverance, something he reflected on while discussing his recovery from microfracture surgery.
“At that time, microfracture surgery is like, it’s called retirement,” he said. “And so it was very difficult for me to deal with that because I was on a trajectory to be on the path to be with the greats. And I had to sit out a full year, and it was excruciating pain to recover from that. And I’m hearing all the news. Stoudemire, he may not be the same. It’s over for him and this and that. So once again, perseverance stepped in. I followed the training staff. Most of the medical and training staff is here tonight. I followed their leadership. I trained perfectly. I did everything I could do to get back to 100%. I came back. First Team All-NBA, played all 82 games, and we took off from there.”
As a child, Stoudemire moved from Florida to upstate New York, and after spending eight seasons with the Suns, Stoudemire signed with the Knicks in 2010.
“I went back to where it kind of all started, right?” he said. “When I got to New York, Coach (Mike) D’Antoni was there as well, and I was able to then now have a coach that knew my game and allowed me to play my game, and so in New York, in the Garden, there’s nothing like it when you hear MVP chants every night; they’re chanting your name. The arena’s rocking… Before I got there, no one else wanted to go to New York, so that’s why I was like, ‘The Knicks are back,’ and we’re going to do this, and so it’s good to see those guys winning that championship this year.”
The road wasn’t easy for Stoudemire in life; he lost his father and older brother at an early age, and his mother spent time in prison when he was a child, but he persevered. He played 14 seasons in the NBA, became a multiple-time All-Star, and now he’s in the Hall of Fame.
For Stoudemire, reaching this point was about more than basketball. Staying out of trouble, remaining focused and persevering through adversity helped guide his journey to the Hall of Fame.
“The most important factor for me was, first of all, stay out of trouble,” he said. “That was the first and foremost thing for me to stay out of trouble. Stay positive, stay focused, stay meaningful, and always keep in mind that perseverance, no matter what one goes through, you can persevere through anything.”
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