Amar'e Retires

[ShelC]

So Amar'e put out a statement announcing his retirement but decided to retire as a Knick (!). Officially signed with the Knicks today to retire and thanked the organization (Dolan, Mills, Melo).

http://www.si.com/nba/2016/07/26/amare- ... ork-knicks
https://twitter.com/alanhahn/status/758030609088442369 I'm actually pretty pissed, but don't want to turn this into a bash thread for Amar'e. It's hard to believe he's retiring. We drafted him to solve our needs in the frontcourt and give us the bigman we had searched for since the Dyess debacle. All the bigs we went thru...Googs, Cliffy, Mark Bryant, Corie Blount, <CENSORED> trying to find that elusive bigman to put us over the top. Seems like the Kandi dunk was just yesterday. He didn't deliver a championship and he won't go out as the best bigman ever to play, but he gave us exactly what we needed when we needed it. One of my favorite players to wear our jersey and some of the best highlights ever (still underrated as a dunker).

Good luck Stat...but you should've retired a Sun.

[carey]

Oh, fuck him.

8 years in Phoenix. A whopping 4 and 1/2 in New York.

[Superbone]

Give me a break. What did he do for the Knicks. The Suns is where he made his mark.

[O_Gardino]

Interviewer: What are you looking forward to most, now that you are retiring?
Ama're: Not having to fake an injury every year in training camp.


Congrats, Ama're! Enjoy your retirement, and thanks for all the memories.

[O_Gardino]

Highlights from Ama're's last great game for us:

[youtube][/youtube]

[The Bobster]

Not sure how exactly he helped make the Knicks relevant.... they made it to the semi-finals once, and that was with his playing 8 minutes a game in the playoffs.

Amar'e was a terrific scorer, originally a great athlete who was overpowering arounf the basket, but he eventually developed a dependable perimeter shot. Solid rebounder, horrible defender.

Having Amar'e and Nash on the same team was a two-edged sword - they were nearly unstoppable offensively, but their defense was always the Suns' Achilles heel.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/Gambo987/status/758045807278891008

[LazarusLong]

Best Suns game I ever saw in person is when he went for 50 against Portland.
Trailblazers used Przbilla, Ratliff, Abdur Rahim and Z-Bo against him.
Przbilla at least got in his way a couple of times.

Was watching TV when he did the Marbury-stinky-cheese-face dunk on Olawakandi. Priceless.

[sunset rubdown]

Best Suns game I ever saw in person is when he went for 50 against Portland.
Trailblazers used Przbilla, Ratliff, Abdur Rahim and Z-Bo against him.
Przbilla at least got in his way a couple of times.

Was watching TV when he did the Marbury-stinky-cheese-face dunk on Olawakandi. Priceless.

I just watched highlights from that game and now I see your post.

[youtube][/youtube]

Amare, one of my favorite Suns ever. Thanks for all that great years here.

[carey]

Gambo's poll: 68% say no RoH because of him choosing to retire as a Knick.

[iLLmatic]

He's an effin' idiot.

[EDC]

Amused that people would be pissed at Amare. All that is missing is someone bitching about him only grabbing 9 rebounds and not 10. Even while shooting 60%+ and scoring 30.

Somethings never change.

Oh wait I can do even better.

It was Amare's defense that lost us the game.

What about Nash's defense?

At least Nash tries on defense!

Running around leaving his man wide open to do absolutely nothing of value is trying?

Guard defense matters so little in this league. It is the bigs defense that really matter. So yes it is still Amare's fault.

Okay whatever...

Let's be honest there was very little love for Amare at the end by most people.

The raw power and athleticism of Amare was so amazing. The 04-05 season really was something special. It was must watch tv because at any second you could be blown away by some insane play. It was the most fun I have ever had watching basketball.

Just the fact that so many people like to argue that the 05-06 was the best of the SSOL era is enough to show what so many thought of Amare.
Damn I need to stop. Just thinking back about that shit and the old arguments is enough to piss me off.

[The Bobster]

Amar'e is just one of many players the Suns have built around that were great offensive players that didn't do much defensively (Nash, Barkley, Davis, Westphal, Chambers, Marbury, Hawkins, KJ). Doesn't mean his play was disappointing here, just that expectations for him weren't realistic. Do you win a lot of game with Nash and Amar'e as your star players? Sure, but you don't win championships that way.

[LazarusLong]

Best Suns game I ever saw in person is when he went for 50 against Portland.
Trailblazers used Przbilla, Ratliff, Abdur Rahim and Z-Bo against him.
Przbilla at least got in his way a couple of times.

Was watching TV when he did the Marbury-stinky-cheese-face dunk on Olawakandi. Priceless.

I just watched highlights from that game and now I see your post.

[youtube][/youtube]

Amare, one of my favorite Suns ever. Thanks for all that great years here.

Nice link to the Portland game, SR. Thanks!

[SDC]

watching him last year, the guy can still play (he actually started at center half of the season with whiteside coming off the bench)

[Charlie Smithy!]

Amar'e is just one of many players the Suns have built around that were great offensive players that didn't do much defensively (Nash, Barkley, Davis, Westphal, Chambers, Marbury, Hawkins, KJ). Doesn't mean his play was disappointing here, just that expectations for him weren't realistic. Do you win a lot of game with Nash and Amar'e as your star players? Sure, but you don't win championships that way.

Was KJ that bad defensively? I only ask cuz I'm too young to really remember, aside from KJ doing a better job on Jordan than Majerle.

I would assume almost by default that KJ was better on defense than Nash, at least.

[Superbone]

Amused that people would be pissed at Amare.

I loved him as a Sun. One of they very few authentic jersey's that I have. Just not too enamored of him retiring as a Knick. He had his best years here not in NY.

[Charlie Smithy!]

Amused that people would be pissed at Amare.

I loved him as a Sun. One of they very few authentic jersey's that I have. Just not too enamored of him retiring as a Knick. He had his best years here not in NY.

[Superbone]

Amused that people would be pissed at Amare.

I loved him as a Sun. One of they very few authentic jersey's that I have. Just not too enamored of him retiring as a Knick. He had his best years here not in NY.

[pickle]

Give me a break. What did he do for the Knicks. The Suns is where he made his mark.

But I guess for him, he's more focused on what the Suns did for him vs. what the Knicks did for him.

I've always been disappointed with Amare, and I can't say this changes my opinion one way or another. Retire as a whatever. I was tired of all the constant injuries and the endless talks of how he will lead the Suns to whatever victory which we invariably fall short on, and I was glad we didn't sign him to a max contract in 2010. Whatever he does now, I don't care about anymore.