‘Anti-Amare Bias’ Starting to Irritate Stoudemire

By Bethlehem Shoals
You know that commercial, where Nash and Amare sit in front of the tube watching Inside the NBA? Nash gets nothing but love, whereas Amare’s squeezed out of the conversation when it comes to the elite. It was a joke, and a funny one, but who knew how close-to-home it was for Stoudemire.
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Speaking to the East Valley Tribune, Amare lets it all hang out:
“I won Rookie of the Year right out of high school, the first in history to do that. I came back from microfracture (surgery) to be first-team All-NBA - that right there says I’m top five in the league ... I am the first to give respect to all the great players in the league, from (Kevin) Garnett, to (Tim) Duncan, to Shaq, to Steve, to Kobe (Bryant), and I’m going to keep doing that in the hope that I’ll get the same at some point. I’m waiting for my turn.”
Elsewhere, he reveals that “it definitely hurts” and asserts that he’s “done things to earn my respect.”
I know that dude can only play defense in the air, but I think there is an anti-Amare bias out there. A lot of the country still believes that he’s product of Steve Nash, just an athlete, a poor rebounder, a cancer, a fluke All-NBA member who happened to play small center, a black hole on offensive. The fact is, these are outdated scouting, overstated memes, and evidence of a player not getting the credit he deserves. Amare may not be a legit MVP candidate, but you can only downplay his greatness if you qualify every aspect of his game. In short, it’s more trouble than it’s worth, and definitely a sign of some sort of bias.
For his part, Shaq is trying to turn this moping into a pop culture-laden campaign for change. From The Arizona Republic:
“In any basic karate movie or any Mafia movie, in order for you to get to the top, you have to take out the top guy. You have to go after what they do ... He has to let the world know who Amaré Stoudemire is.”
Umm, yeah. Has anyone ever created a Shaq quote creator, along the lines of that Bill Simmons column generator?↵