Amare Revs Up His Own Positive PR Machine

The Amare Stoudemire trade rumors will soon suffocate us all; I think I read this morning that the Warriors want in, too, though no one had any Trade Machine scheme to swing Amare their way. But key to this circus -- whether Amare moves, how much he’s worth, if he’s sent into the NBA’s equivalent of Siberia -- is dude’s character. Over the last few weeks, the young big man has earned as reputation as, well, a bad teammate and general pain in the ass. Not exactly the kind of tag that sends one’s stock soaring.↵
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↵That’s why, no matter what the future holds, Amare’s launched a campaign to save his good name. Or maybe build up one from scratch. From FanHouse:↵↵⇥“I heard Avery Johnson say one time I was a bad locker room guy or whatever,” Stoudemire said. “That stuff’s totally B.S. -- we get along so well inside the locker room, we hang out with each other probably more than any team in the league as far as camaraderie, as far as hanging out together. We try to enjoy ourselves.”↵↵

And, what’s more:↵↵⇥As one reporter pointed out, several of the Suns have described Stoudemire as being one of the most social players on the team. “That’s my thing, that’s why I don’t understand what Avery Johnson was saying or Tim Legler on NBA Shootaround when they said I was a bad locker room guy. That’s not me. That’s not me.”↵↵What Amare’s trying to get across, and few would argue with, is that off the court he’s a barrel of laughs. There’s a certain disconnect between non-stop friendliness and, say, how you respond to a tough loss, or whether your teammates know it’s all-for-one out on the court. Amare’s been unfairly skewered on both these counts, but he does have some semblance of a bad track record there. In a way, it’s total PR brilliance to hit the world with a “I’m a great guy” blitz just as his reputation is questioned on a very public, very regular basis.↵
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↵Maybe he’s learned more from Shaq than we thought.↵