SPRINGFIELD, Mass. \u2014 The day before Amar\u2019e Stoudemire was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Bright Side sat down with the five-time All-NBA selection and the six-time All-Star for a conversation about his time with the Suns, playing for Mike D\u2019Antoni and what he\u2019s feeling before his big day.<\/p>\n
(The following answers have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.)<\/p>\n
You\u2019re about to get inducted into the Hall of Fame. What are you feeling right now?<\/p>\n
Amar\u2019e Stoudemire: Tomorrow, I\u2019m gonna feel probably even more ecstatic, right? I\u2019m soaking in the moment. I\u2019m really cherishing the time. I\u2019m walking slowly. I\u2019m enjoying my family. I\u2019m watching their faces, see all the other Hall of Famers that are here, and just really soaking in the moments and really taking my time with that.<\/p>\n
When did you realize you were gonna be a Hall of Famer?<\/p>\n
AS: Well, you always try to reach for the stars when you\u2019re a player, right? You set goals and you try to accomplish those goals, and it\u2019s never easy to accomplish those goals. So I always had high goals set for myself when I was a kid, and it kept me straight. You know, it kept me focused, man. And I think because of that, I was able to persevere through a lot of things and be able to make it here to the Hall of Fame, so it\u2019s great to be here.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s well documented how bad the Suns wanted you. How did that help you buy into the Seven Seconds or Less offense?<\/p>\n
AS: I spoke to Coach Mike D\u2019Antoni today, and he was like, \u201cAmar\u2019e, when I first mentioned the new offense to you, you really didn\u2019t care. Like you wasn\u2019t upset about the change that we\u2019re making playing you at center.\u201d And so, I was ready to go, man. I think you know, for us, I always looked at my coaches as leaders, as leadership, and so whatever they feel is the best for the team, but I was always willing to sacrifice or make that happen. So when Coach D\u2019Antoni mentioned we\u2019re going to play this style of basketball, I was like, all right, cool, let\u2019s go. I can adapt to any type of basketball game or play, and so I was ready from the start.<\/p>\n
For more on how hard the Suns pursued Amar\u2019e Stoudemire: <\/p>\n
How were you able to adapt in your career?<\/p>\n
AS: I think for me, I wanted to be a team player. Obviously, I had goals and wanted to be the best and dominate and show the world how good I am. But I also was willing to be a team player, and I think for me as a leader, you want your teammates to be leaders also. I always tell my guys all the time, \u2018Hey, I know I\u2019m the franchise guy, but we all must be leaders here\u2019. And so, with that being said, all of us, everyone can play at a high level and play their game and have fun. And that\u2019s how you build the camaraderie. That\u2019s how you build a championship-caliber team. And that\u2019s what we did in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Was there a moment where it felt everything clicked?<\/p>\n
AS:In training camp, when we got Steve Nash. When Steve came back to Phoenix and we started training camp, we all were in top shape, ready to go. And from training camp, we saw something special. We saw the style of play and the speed we were playing with. I was at my athleticism peak, and we had Shawn Marion, who was a brilliant floor runner and Swiss Army knife type of player, and Nash was the pass first guy who could get the ball to whoever was hot. So we took that mentality and ran with it. And I think I was surprised by how good we were.<\/p>\n
How was having Scott Williams around for your first few seasons help you as a young player?<\/p>\n
AS: Scott Williams\u2019 mentorship was brilliant for me because I was a young player. I was 19 years old, and I had a lot of veteran guys around. Scott Williams is one of my veteran guys who I always leaned on and swept with and hung out with the most. Eddie Johnson, who is still doing the color commentator stuff, but EJ was one of the guys who I also spent a lot of time with. We had a security guy by the name of Kevin Tucker, and I call all those guys my \u201cthrowbacks\u201d. I gave them the name throwbacks because I hang out with those guys. I was too young to go out to clubs and all these type of things, so I would hang out with those guys, and those guys would always give me positive leadership and information, and that helped stem me on the right path as far as what I needed to do as a player.<\/p>\n
How did their mentorship carry with you the rest of your career?<\/p>\n
AS: Those guys, man, was there with me. They were holding me down. They would talk to me about certain things. I\u2019d be frustrated about certain games. They would talk about it, and we\u2019d discuss it, and so my throwbacks were key for me.<\/p>\n
What did the amount of change you had to deal with growing up teach you about how to adapt quickly?<\/p>\n
AS: I grew up in poverty and I had to grow up fast. Had to raise my little brother. I had to do a lot of things far as maturity wise, and so I was able to somewhat figure that part out pretty quickly. I had the goals in mind of being an NBA player, and I also had my faith in God that was always very close to my heart. So with those tangibles that I had within me, allowed me to somewhat grow up fast with a sense of character, with positive character traits, and that helped me propel myself and get ready for the NBA.<\/p>\n
Whose a player in the NBA right now that reminds you of yourself in how you needed to make many changes early in your career?<\/p>\n
AS: I don\u2019t see it. I mean, for me, I was a high school player who had a fearless attitude and I was just dominant from the start. And so, a lot of players are dominant, and I respect all the guys who are in the NBA because it\u2019s not easy to get there. But I don\u2019t really see that type of player, my style of play, in the league right now. I\u2019m sure some guys have come along and fill that role, but I haven\u2019t seen it yet.<\/p>\n
No matter the industry, what is one piece of advice you give to people about the best ways to embrace something new, to be a team player?<\/p>\n
The best advice I can give someone is to learn. Whatever it is you get yourself involved in, it\u2019ll take time to be a student and learn, study, read, rehearse, review, and then once you\u2019re ready for that, then you step into that role, ready to go, right? So that\u2019s the most important thing: is being able to study about whatever craft or field you get into.<\/p>\n
You can watch the full interview here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Mass. \u2014 The day before Amar\u2019e Stoudemire was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Bright…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,6,2065,472,4045,604,40517],"class_list":["post-812677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-suns","tag-suns-features"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117101577050969407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}