Amare in Vegas
Posted on July 8th, 2006 by
Being a huge Phoenix Suns fan ever since Amare joined the league, I’m really starting to look forward to next season after reading this article over at ESPN 
No hammer dunks. No blocks resembling a volleyball spike. There really wasn’t a single gasp-inducing moment in the desert Friday where you were you moved to exclaim: That’s Amare.
But that’s nitpicking.
The only mission for Amare Stoudemire in his long-awaited return to game conditions was running freely. The aim was moving with the confidence he didn’t have back in March, when he had to abort his comeback from microfracture knee surgery after three games.
“This was the first time I was out there just playing,” Stoudemire said. “Not thinking.”
That’s all his bosses wanted to see, but Stoudemire managed to give them a little bit extra at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion. Sporting a new No. 1 on his jersey and logging 30 minutes in a 40-minute game in the Vegas Summer League, Stoudemire was sufficiently active, spry and controlled to total 21 points and eight rebounds in a 91-83 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves … while mixing in a handful of slick passes that Steve Nash would have gladly claimed as his own.
“If you were seeing him every day like we are, you’d realize how much he’s making strides,” said Suns coach Mike D’Antoni, who now doubles as the club’s head of basketball operations. “Obviously he’s still a ways away, but we still have three months to get him all the way back. #
