Amare Stoudemire’s Freak Eye Injury Might as Well Be a Conspiracy Theory

Fate works in mysterious ways, and everyone gets what they deserve, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly how these truisms apply. Take, for instance, the shocking news that Amare Stoudemire will miss eight weeks, possibly the rest of his 2008-09, with a detached retina. If you recall, Amare had some other eye issues in the preseason, at which time he vowed to rock goggles forever, proclaimed them back as a fashion statement, and then promptly dropped them.↵
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↵But since I never really thought the Suns were making the playoffs anyway, let’s take a look at the deeper implications. The Suns wanted badly to unload Amare because he was a problem and cost a lot. Everyone wanted him, but the offers weren’t good enough, so instead they fired coach Terry Porter and hoped that would rejuvenate their running game. And yet still, at the deadline, there were rumors of moving Shaq to further facilitate the new, speedier philosophy (and save money).↵
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With Amare out of the picture now, there’s so much poetic justice floating around that it cancels itself out. The team acts like Amare’s non-essential ... well fine, let’s see how they fare without him. Let’s see if an ancient Shaq really is their best player. Porter’s firing and Gentry’s promotion were the opposite of moving Amare and continuing to try for hard-noised legitimacy. But Kerr and Sarver arrived at this conclusion only after weeks of favoring the other tact. So they should only cry so much, right? And let’s not forget that, at this point in their respective careers, Nash needs Amare as much as Amare needs Nash. That should become painfully apparent over the next few weeks.↵
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↵I think, though, that Amare benefits here. No one likes to miss time, and he did seem to have something to prove these last few, Porter-less games. But the team will spend all the rest of this season missing him, and probably realize during the off-season what all these teams chasing Stoudemire already knew -- dude’s a beast, an offensive machine, and only tragically flawed if you’ve come to take him for granted. So he enters 2009-10 with a ton of sympathy, and an organization desperate to make the most of him, as well as retain him after 2010.↵
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↵Cue all the haters claiming Amare faked this injury to prove a point. That’s what I would do if I were him.↵