Amar’e Stands Tall And Talented
Amar’e Stoudemire, power forward and center for the New York Knicks won the Rookie of the Year award in 2003, right after finishing high school. He’s been in six NBA All-Star games, and won a Bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and now, he’s adding the title of children’s author to his resume. This week he stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about a new book he wrote to help inspire kids to read– STAT, Standing Tall and Talented. Excerpts of the interview appear below.
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Ron Bennington: What made you come up with the children’s book?
Amar’e Stoudemire: Well you know there are a lot of situations and certain areas where the children are now shying away from reading. And so I wanted to create a book that relates to my upbringing, and the ash to my schwag and the lingo that we use as children to get them to relate to the book. And also have a passion toward reading again.
Ron Bennington: You were a big reader growing up?
Amar’e Stoudemire: You know, I wasn’t actually. The only time I read was when the bookstore came into town, and I was able to go and pickup a book that would interest me. Then I would then read that book, but I wasn’t an everyday reader.
Ron Bennington: Bullying kind of takes place, which is a hot topic now. But the bullying that takes place is not exactly physically beating up other kids, but kind of dominating them. Was that something you dealt with when you were a little kid?
Amar’e Stoudemire: I never personally dealt with it…I was the guy who diffused the situation. If I saw that happening in school– I was much taller than most of the kids– so I would be the peacemaker. But in the book it has a lot of different elements to it. For one, my father owned a lawn mower company. So he used to wake me up certain mornings and go work with him. And so I noticed how hard work really pays off. And within the story, within the book, there’s a can that’s crushed in a certain way, and it’s making my dad’s job a lot harder. These guys are vandalizing the neighborhood– my dad’s like, “I don’t know what’s going on with these kids are just littering and terrorizing the neighborhood.” So further along in the book, it gets to the point where now this same can, that’s crushed, I notice on the basketball court. And these bullies on the basketball court are the same guys that are terrorizing my dad’s yard. So it’s a pretty fun story.
Ron Bennington: Now, you’re young enough where this stuff didn’t happen all that long ago with you. And you were one of the guys too that jumped from school straight into the pros, right?
Amar’e Stoudemire: Right, yeah, I was drafted in 2002 from high school to the NBA. I was the first player in NBA history to get rookie of the year from prep to pro.
Ron Bennington: But did you miss anything, you think by not going to college? Was that a lot of pressure on a kid just to jump into the full lifestyle of around the year basketball all of a sudden?
Amar’e Stoudemire: You know what? I went from playing organized basketball at fourteen to being an NBA rookie at eighteen. So it was a four year turnaround for my improvement from fourteen to eighteen to be now drafted top ten in the NBA draft. And to be a rookie at eighteen in the NBA, it was a lot of fun, but I had a lot to learn.
Ron Bennington: And also the fact that it’s so grueling. It’s physically tough and also mentally tough.
Amare Stoudemire: That is true. The season is eighty-two games, not including playoffs or preseason. And you’re playing against grown men at eighteen, every single night. So its got the tendency to weigh on you a little bit.
Ron Bennington: What about the intimidation factor too. When you’re eighteen, you’re not physically– your body is never going to physically catch up to somebody who is in their mid twenties or thirties so you’re being pushed around emotionally and physically at that age.
Amare Stoudemire: Yeah, I was somewhat advanced when I first came out. I was physically prepared for those guys. I worked extremely hard to prepare myself for the draft so I was strong and equipped for the NBA, but again by not going to college I did miss out on certain parts of education which is very important. I didn’t get the chance to experience and enjoy the college life. But I did have fun in the NBA.
Ron Bennington: But you …for yourself and your family– you felt like, if I can help my family out at this age, it’s a lot more valuable to me than going to college right now.
Amar’e Stoudemire: Absolutely.
Ron Bennington: Playing with the Knicks now, ‘Mello’s coming back with a gold medal. He had a very big summer. You’ve been working out all summer. You guys are feeling pretty good about your chances this year.
Amar’e Stoudemire: Absolutely we feel great. And Tyson Chandler’s also coming back with a Gold medal. So we got guys that are dedicated to improving and becoming much better players and also a much better team. So it’s going to be an exciting year.
Ron Bennington: And you’re of course playing in the same division as the champs. LA has done a lot of big things this year. Do you pay attention to everything that’s happening in the league or you just try to focus on what’s happening with the Knicks.
Amar’e Stoudemire: No, we definitely pay attention to what’s happening. Because those guys are the teams and players we’ve got to compete against so we want to make sure we understand what they’re doing and who they are and what type of team they are so we can better prepare ourselves for the game.
Ron Bennington: And people don’t realize how much chemistry plays into it. And you guys, now that you’ve had a chance to play together somewhat, you feel like there’s a flow that you’re picking up with each other?
Amar’e Stoudemire: Yeah we’ve got an understanding now, that we have a full team. Our players are under contract and we know that we’re going to be here…longevity. So that’s a sense of security for the players. And we also have a coach who knows he’s going to be here for longevity. So with that being said, the chemistry can start from the ground up. We all know we’re going to be here, we all know what the goal is, to win the championship. Start with training camp and build there.
Ron Bennington: New York is such a basketball town. Even though we’ve got the Yankees, we’ve got the world champion Giants, and there’s double teams all over, but when basketball is really poppin, this town changes in a way that they don’t for any other sport.
Amar’e Stoudemire: Absolutely. I felt it when I first signed with the Knicks two years ago. How the city just wakes up, it’s just a roar when the Knicks are winning. So, we want to keep that excitement going.
Ron Bennington: And now that the Nets are going to be in Brooklyn, I think it’s going to be a healthy thing for the city too– that the city is going to have so much fun with these games.
Amar’e Stoudemire: And the first game of the year is against Brooklyn, in Brooklyn, so it’s going to be an exciting season.
Ron Bennington: And it’s good to see that you guys haven’t lost Spike (Amare laughs). I didnt know whether he was going to make the jump, since he’s from Brooklyn, but he was in here a few weeks ago, and he says, no, he’s Knicks forever.
Amar’e Stoudemire: See, the New York Knicks represent the state of New York. And Spike is the mascot for the New York Knicks. You know what I mean? So he’s not going anywhere.
Ron Bennington: Basketball and Soccer are the two real world games right now. And I’m shocked to see how good Italian players are getting– how good Eastern European players are getting. Keep an eye on China cause that’s coming up fast. But the difference between you and a football player is you get that world brand out there. You’re known all over the world.
Amar’e Stoudemire: That is true. I’m leaving to go to China tomorrow morning for the Nike Festival of Sport. So basketball is definitely a world wide sport. And you’re right I have fans all over the world.
Ron Bennington: Why do you think they picked up this thing that we had to ourselves for so many years in America?
Amar’e Stoudemire: You want the world to understand the game of basketball just as much as we do here in America. And when we travel to different countries, the players watch us and take notes from us and learn from our game. We send coaching staffs over there, we send players over there to teach those players the game. You know, to make it fun and competitive.
Ron Bennington: And they are talking about doing something similar to the World Cup where you’re playing clubs from all over the world. Is that something you look forward to?
Amar’e Stoudemire: That would be awesome, to experience different cultures and to play in different countries would be phenomenal.
Ron Bennington: Stat is the book and it ends with…there’s more coming. So you plan on keeping these books coming out. What are some of the future concepts you’ve got?
Amar’e Stoudemire: Yeah this is the first of the book series. So there’s three total books of the STAT (Standing Tall and Talented) series. The first book that you have there is called “Home Court”. It’s out now in any bookstore or anywhere online. I had a book signing yesterday and they sold out. 400 books were sold out within an hour and a half. So you may want to pick up those books pretty soon (laughs)
Ron Bennington: Thanks so much for stopping by. The book, for kids, it’s STAT, Standing Tall and Talented. Thanks so much for coming by man and good luck to the Knicks this year, we’ll all be pulling for you.
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Follow Amar’e on Twitter or send her congratulations at @AmareIsReal.
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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free trial subscription.
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.
