Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire (born November 16, 1982), also known as Yehoshophat ben Avraham, is an American-Israeli professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as a player development assistant for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2025 and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026.
He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 2003 with the Phoenix Suns, who selected him with the ninth overall pick of the 2002 NBA draft. He made six appearances in the NBA All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA Team five times, including one first-team selection in 2007. Stoudemire was inducted into the Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor on March 2, 2024.
Stoudemire played high school basketball for three schools, ultimately graduating from Cypress Creek High School in Orlando, Florida, and declaring for the NBA draft as a prep-to-pro player. He won several prep honors, including being selected as Florida's Mr. Basketball. Stoudemire had chronic knee problems during his career and underwent microfracture surgery on both knees. He played for the Suns, the New York Knicks, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Miami Heat before retiring from the NBA in 2016.
Stoudemire won a bronze medal with the United States national team at the 2004 Olympic Games. His off-court ventures include a record label, a clothing line, acting and a series of children's books for Scholastic Press. In addition, Stoudemire owns a significant share of Hapoel Jerusalem, the team he won a championship with in 2017. He won the championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2020 and was named the Israeli Basketball Premier League Finals MVP.
Early life Stoudemire was born in Lake Wales, Florida, a small city, an hour away from Orlando, Florida. Stoudemire's parents, Hazell and Carrie (née Palmorn), divorced when he was young. Together they had two sons and a daughter: Hazell Jr., Ladesha, and Amar'e. Stoudemire's mother did agricultural work, picking oranges in Florida and migrating north to upstate New York to pick apples during the fall. Upon divorcing Hazell, she met Artis Wilmore, with whom she had a son, Marwan, Stoudemire's half-brother. His father died of a heart attack when Stoudemire was 12, and his mother was in and out of prison for crimes such as petty theft and forgery during that time. Stoudemire lived in Newburgh, New York "for about five months" in 1994 before relocating to Port Jervis, New York where he lived until 1998. In his parents' absence, Stoudemire had other outside influences to help guide him, including a policeman, Burney Hayes, he occasionally stayed with; he also lived with his Fastbreak USA, AAU squad's coach, Travis King, as well as a minister, Rev. Bill Williams.
High school career Stoudemire did not start playing organized basketball until he was 14. As a result of moving in-and-out with his mother and her problems with the law, Stoudemire transferred between five high schools in two states six different times. He first attended Lake Wales High School in Lake Wales, Florida, where his freshman season was cut short due to academic ineligibility. He transferred to Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, North Carolina, to play for coach Joel Hopkins. Midway through the year, Hopkins founded Emmanuel Christian Academy in a Durham office building basement and took the Mount Zion basketball team to serve as his student body; the school folded before they played a game. Stoudemire returned to Florida where he attended summer school at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando. He briefly reenrolled at Mount Zion Academy and then sat out a year at West Orange High School in Winter Garden, Florida, due to academic ineligibility that stemmed from his transcripts from Mount Zion. His final move was to Cypress Creek High School in Orlando, Florida, where he graduated in 2002. Due to all the transfers, he missed his entire junior year of basketball and only played two full seasons.
Apart from basketball, Stoudemire excelled in football. He was coached by his father in Pop Warner football and imagined himself a star receiver for the University of Miami, University of Florida or Florida State University. Growing up he rooted for Shaquille O'Neal, center for the hometown Orlando Magic of the NBA.
In his senior year, Stoudemire averaged 29.1 points, 15 rebounds, 6.1 blocked shots, and 2.1 steals per game. Among Stoudemire's high school honors was being selected to play in the 2002 McDonald's All-American Game at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where he played with two future New York Knicks teammates, Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton. He was also named Florida's Mr. Basketball, the Orlando Sentinel Florida High School Player of the Year, and to USA Today All-USA Basketball First Team.
Considered a five-star recruit by Scout.com, Stoudemire was listed as the No. 1 player in the nation in 2002. With his biggest goal in high school being making it to the NBA, Stoudemire committed to the University of Memphis. However, he later de-committed and declared for the NBA draft, being taken with the ninth pick in the 2002 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. He was the only high school player taken that year in the first round.
Professional career
Phoenix Suns (2002–2010)
2002–03: Rookie of the Year In his rookie season, Stoudemire averaged 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, with a season high of 38 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 30, 2002, the highest score by a prep-to-pro player until broken a year later by LeBron James. Stoudemire was selected to the Rookie squad in the Rookie Challenge. In the game, Stoudemire recorded 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Stoudemire won the NBA's Rookie of the Year award, beating out Yao Ming and Caron Butler and becoming the first player drafted out of high school to win the award. Stoudemire also was selected to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. The Suns, led by Stoudemire, Stephon Marbury, Shawn Marion, Penny Hardaway and Joe Johnson, made it to the playoffs but were defeated in six games by the eventual champions, the San Antonio Spurs.
2003–04: Improving as a sophomore During the following season, Stoudemire improved statistically, but his team stumbled to a 29–53 record, and point guard Marbury was traded to the New York Knicks. During the season Stoudemire had a 10-block game against the Utah Jazz; he recorded six blocks in the first quarter alone (both team records). During the summer of 2004, Stoudemire was selected to play for the eventual bronze medal-winning 2004 U.S. national team in the Summer Olympics. However, head coach Larry Brown declined to give him significant playing time (6.9 minutes per game).
2004–05: First All-Star and All-NBA appearances During the 2004–05 season, Stoudemire teamed up with point guard Steve Nash whom the Suns signed as a free agent, to lead the Suns to a 62–20 record. Averaging 26 points per game that year and achieving a new career high of 50 points against the Portland Trail Blazers, he was selected to his first NBA All-Star Game as a reserve forward. Stoudemire and Nash ran a pick-and-roll some have compared to Hall of Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone. In the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, Stoudemire averaged 37 points per game, but the Suns still lost in five games.
2005–06: Knee problems On October 4, 2005, Stoudemire signed a five-year, $73 million with a player option in the final season. During the 2005–06 NBA preseason, knee cartilage damage was discovered and Stoudemire underwent microfracture surgery on October 18, 2005. Initially, the Suns thought he would return by mid-February, but his rehab took longer than expected. Stoudemire, however, scored 20 points in his return against the Portland Trail Blazers, but went scoreless his third game against the New Jersey Nets on March 27, 2006. On March 28 it was announced that he would likely miss the rest of the regular season due to ongoing stiffness in both knees. Stoudemire's rehabilitation, which was led by Suns trainer Aaron Nelson and Dr. Micheal Clark, the president and CEO of the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), went well as he stated during the rehab that he was explosive and he gradually gained his strength back.
Stoudemire attended the 2006 USA Basketball camp in Las Vegas, although he ultimately did not play in the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
2006–07: Comeback and All-NBA First Team selection Before the 2006–07 season, Stoudemire changed his jersey number from 32 to 1. Dijon Thompson had worn no. 1 the previous season.
On February 18, 2007, Stoudemire appeared in the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, his second All-Star Game appearance. He scored 29 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, but missed out on the MVP award to Kobe Bryant.
During the 2007 playoffs, in a series against the San Antonio Spurs, Stoudemire accused Manu Ginóbili and Bruce Bowen of being "dirty" players. Stoudemire, along with teammate Boris Diaw, was suspended for Game 5 for leaving the bench area after an altercation between teammate Steve Nash and Spurs forward Robert Horry. The Suns lost to the Spurs in six games despite Stoudemire averaging 26.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2 blocks throughout the series. He finished the 2006–07 regular season averaging 20.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team.
2007–10: Eye surgery and playoff defeats Stoudemire played in the FIBA Americas Championship 2007, but withdrew from the national team for the 2008 Olympics. Jerry Colangelo, managing director for the national team, said, "Amar'e has pulled himself out of consideration for the roster and that's predicated on, despite the fact that he's had an injury-free year coming back, he's a little hesitant on pushing the envelope too hard." Stoudemire had said in April 2008, "It's more than a year-round grind. It's last year and the year before that and the year before that. It's really been like a three-year-round basketball circuit."
Stoudemire led the Suns in scoring (25.2 per game) and rebounds (9.1 per game) in the 2007–08 season. He made the All-Star team and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. Stoudemire also adjusted well to playing with veteran center Shaquille O'Neal, who the Suns had acquired in February. The Suns, however, faltered in the playoffs, again losing to their rivals the San Antonio Spurs. The Suns blew a big lead in game one of the series, and seemed to never recover, losing the series 4–1 to the Spurs. Stoudemire averaged 23 points in the series. After the season, Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni left the team to coach the New York Knicks.
Under new coach Terry Porter, the Suns struggled early in 2008–09 with his system and lost five games in a row heading into the 2009 All-Star break. Stoudemire was voted a starter for the Western Conference. On February 18, in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Stoudemire suffered a detached retina. Despite suffering it in the first quarter, he finished the game with 42 points and made 15 of his 20 field goal attempts. He had injured the same eye in preseason, although this injury involved a partially torn iris, with no damage to his retina. He said then that he would have to wear protective goggles for the rest of his career, but stopped wearing them after seven games. Stoudemire underwent eye surgery to repair the retina. The recovery took eight weeks, which forced him to miss the remainder of the regular season. He announced that he would wear protective goggles when he returned to play the following season.