Amar'e Retires

[Superbone]

They had a New York guy on AZ radio. He didn't think it was anything personal but just thought that Amare really liked New York. Liked the culture and just wanted to be thought of as a New Yorker. Thought maybe it was for reasons outside of basketball. Plus, they did pay him 100 million. So there's that.

[Cap]

I checked Basketball Reference for Suns with the greatest total regular season win shares in their Suns careers.

1. Shawn Marion
2. Kevin Johnson
3. Steve Nash
4. Alvan Adams
5. Amar'e Stoudenire
6. Walter Davis (Did they do this on purpose?)
7. Dick Van Arsdale
8. Larry Nance
9. Dan Majerle (There we go again!)
10. Paul Westphal
11. Charles Barkley
12. Jeff Hornacek
13. Jason Kidd
14. Connie Hawkins
15. Tom Chambers

Notable omissions from the Ring: Nance, Hornacek, Kidd

Positions of current Suns: Barbosa 18, Dudley 24, Tucker 36, Bledsoe 49


ETA: Here's the playoffs version:

1. Kevin Johnson
2. Charles Barkley
3. Steve Nash
4. Shawn Marion
5. Amar'e Stoudemire
6. Dan Majerle
7. Walter Davis
8. Alvan Adams
9. Jeff Hornacek
10. Paul Westphal
11. Mark West
12. Raja Bell
13. Tom Chambers
14. Boris Diaw
15. Larry Nance

[O_Gardino]

Ama're is all over the Suns career leaderboards. He was pretty dang good for us.

3rd - Rebounds (O, D, and Total)
3rd - FTs (attempted and made)
5th - Blocks
6th - Points
8th - Mintutes played
7th - Usage %
5th - Win Shares
2nd - WS/48
2nd - Player Efficiency Rating

[LazarusLong]

"Notable omissions from the Ring: Nance, Hornacek, Kidd"

Kidd played many more games for Dallas than for the Suns. That might factor in the overall equation. That aside, he had some great seasons for Phoenix.

Nance split his career almost evenly between Phoenix and Cleveland. He was a very solid player on some mediocre Suns teams, and a fan favorite.

While Hornacek was a fan favorite, there were a number of players from that are already represented: Barkley, Johnson, Chambers, Majerle.

My guess is the next RofH selection will be Marion, then Stoudemire. Nance and/or Hornacek could both follow.

[O_Gardino]

At this point, I doubt either Nance or Hornacek makes the RoH. Nance just didn't ply on good enough teams (and wins do matter), and Jeff was gone when the 90s suns made their.

Jeff has had his # retired by the Jazz, though, despite playing his second best ball for them. He was a very good player.

[Shabazz]

[youtube][/youtube]

Amare's top 10 plays.

I think my low-key favorite is is dunk over Josh Smith. Kandi/Tolliver/Foyle get more attention, but I just love the optics of that Smith posterization.

[Ring_Wanted]

The block on Duncan. Inhuman.

[LazarusLong]

The block on Duncan. Inhuman.

One of the top blocks I've seen. By anybody. On anybody.

[O_Gardino]

http://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/ ... 2_21411310

[Split T]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/n ... /87677378/


Explains why Amare didn't retire a sun.

[Superbone]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/n ... /87677378/


Explains why Amare didn't retire a sun.

Good to hear that from Amare!

[AmareIsGod]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/n ... /87677378/


Explains why Amare didn't retire a sun.

Good to hear that from Amare!

Stoudemire just did not feel the same love back in the past two offseasons, when he hoped to return to the Suns to close his career. That prompted him to reach out to New York this month for a ceremonial contract with a “Once a Knick, Always a Knick” quotation to cap his 14-year career.
“The last two years, we made phone calls to Phoenix but I wasn’t getting any positive response,” Stoudemire told azcentral sports on Thursday.

Uncanny how on point I was a few days ago when I said the exact same thing. Paul Coro has nothing on AiG.

Yesterday:

AmareIsGod: "And I know Amare wanted to come back to the Suns the last 2 off seasons for a season before he retired. We didn't even entertain the offer or talk to him about doing so."

[Cap]

Paul Coro has nothing on AiG.

Well, he doesn't write about himself in the third person, so he has that on you.

[da_suns_fan]

Ill give you 100 million reasons he wanted to say "thanks" to the Knicks.

What did the Suns do for him? Offer him a bizarre partially-guaranteed contract after he sold them a ton of tickets. Even if he was only good for a couple more seasons thats a couple more than we've had since he left.

Saying Amare will be remembered as a Knick is like saying Shaq and Penny will be remembered as Suns. Who cares what team he chose to sign a one day contract for?

[AmareIsGod]

Paul Coro has nothing on AiG.

Well, he doesn't write about himself in the third person, so he has that on you.

But I do write about myself in the 3rd person. So I've got that on him.

[Nodack]

I can't fault anybody. It's a business. Amare was a bad ass. I think he should be in the ring of honor at some point. Not sure if him finishing here would have been a blessing or a curse.

Much to do about nothing. Summer's are slow....

[JustWinBaby]

Who cares what team a player retires "as"? I still loved his years here and will always remember him as a great Sun. We were also correct to let him leave in 2010 because of all the injury risks that proved to be totally founded. He had one (*1*) good year ever again after he left us, and they had to pay $100,000,000 for it. I can still remember 2003-2010 fondly and he can say he's retiring a Knick all he wants.

I remember we had quite a discussion when Sarver decided not to sign him for the $100,000,000 contract. In theory you and others were correct to a point. However I argued, at the time, that we would not be able to replace him and that I wanted to see that group from 2010 stay together, many of us really liked that team. By not signing him we made Nash irrelevant and ultimately it cost Gentry his job as well. That is after Sarver basically did not have D'Antoni's back and he left town. Another idiotic decision by Sarver.

Well you can twist it any way you want but we have not made the playoffs since we let him go. Only once since we let D'Antoni go. We have lost fan base and have basically been irrelevant since his departure. At this point a championship run is not even under consideration. The bigger question is, in what decade we will next make the playoffs?
The argument was that we needed to build a championship team and that keeping Amare would hinder that endeavor. How has that worked out?

Surely he probably would not have been effective for the entire contract but I expect that we would have been relevant for at least 2 years, maybe more with the aide of our medical staff. We surely would have been far more fun to watch, when he was healthy, than the crap we have put on the floor since his departure. Who knows maybe Nash would have retired a Sun.

The really sad thing was that we kept Nash around. We should have dumped him at the same time.

IMO, Amare would have been a perfect signing for this group for the next couple of years. I wonder who stopped that from happening, Sarver or Wooden?

The cause of all of our problems always seem to lead back to poor decisions by our ass clown owner, Robert Sarver. That is the main reason that I have little faith in Wooden being our coach.

[The Bobster]

Why did signing a one day contract so you could retire as a "_______" become a thing? It used to be that a team would give you your night after you retired by retiring your number and giving you some gifts and that was enough.

Amar'e left Phoenix to sign a fully-guaranteed contract with New York. None of us should blame him for that, but then again, nobody should blame the Suns for not offering his the same deal, which turned out to be a poor investment by New York.

[LazarusLong]

Why did signing a one day contract so you could retire as a "_______" become a thing? It used to be that a team would give you your night after you retired by retiring your number and giving you some gifts and that was enough.

Amar'e left Phoenix to sign a fully-guaranteed contract with New York. None of us should blame him for that, but then again, nobody should blame the Suns for not offering his the same deal, which turned out to be a poor investment by New York.

The one-day-contract-to-retire gambit is something you find more in the NFL than in the NBA.
But Stoudemire's always been a bit unconventional ...

[O_Gardino]

I remember we had quite a discussion when Sarver decided not to sign him for the $100,000,000 contract. In theory you and others were correct to a point. However I argued, at the time, that we would not be able to replace him and that I wanted to see that group from 2010 stay together, many of us really liked that team.

I was firmly in the camp that thought it was time to rebuild. In retrospect, I think I was wrong. Even if we only got one more great year out of Ama're and Steve together, I would want that over what we got.