{"id":113428,"date":"2024-12-21T07:07:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T12:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=113428"},"modified":"2024-12-21T07:07:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T12:07:52","slug":"case-for-amare-stoudemire-make-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/21\/case-for-amare-stoudemire-make-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Case For Amar\u2019e Stoudemire To Make The Hall Of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Basketball Hall of Fame<\/a> Class of 2025 finalists were announced on Thursday. Former NBA players that were annnounced aa finalists include Carmelo Anthony<\/a>, Marc Gasol<\/a>, Dwight Howard<\/a>, and Amar\u2019e Stoudemire<\/a>. While Anthony and Howard are likely getting inducted on their first ballot, Stoudemire presents an interesting case. This is the first time that he has been named a finalist.<\/p>\n

Should Amar\u2019e Stoudemire be in the Hall of Fame? Here is a case as to why he should.<\/p>\n

Case For Amar\u2019e Stoudemire To Make The Hall Of Fame<\/h2>\n

Stoudemire\u2019s NBA Background<\/h3>\n

In the 2002 NBA Draft, the Phoenix Suns selected Stoudemire with the ninth overall pick. The 6-foot-10 power forward\/center made his mark from the get-go, as he was named the 2002-03 Rookie of the Year<\/a>. Stoudemire spent eight seasons with Phoenix where he built superb chemistry with point guard Steve Nash<\/a>. The Suns made three Western Conference Finals appearances during Stoudemire\u2019s tenure there (was injured and didn\u2019t play in the 2006 postseason).<\/p>\n

In the 2010 offseason, Stoudemire joined the New York Knicks on a five-year deal. His first season with the team was Stoudemire at his finest. Playing much of the season at 28 years old, he finished ninth in MVP voting. That was his fourth time having a top-10 MVP showing after three of them with the Suns. The Knicks also executed an in-season trade for Carmelo Anthony, giving Knicks fans hope that the two can help lead the team to heights they hadn\u2019t reached in decades.<\/p>\n

Instead, Stoudemire\u2019s body began breaking down. Even when he did play, he wasn\u2019t his former athletic self. The Knicks would go on to waive him in February of 2015. He would play the rest of the season with the Dallas Mavericks, and he spent his final year in the NBA with the Miami Heat in 2015-16.<\/p>\n

Altogether, Stoudemire spent 14 seasons in the NBA. In 846 career regular season games, he posted averages of 18.9 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 blocks. He shot 53.7% from the field and 76.1% from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

Five All-NBA Appearances<\/h3>\n

Five times, Stoudemire was named to an All-NBA team. He never squeaked by in making one as a third teamer either. Instead, he was named to the first team once, and the second team four times. The first four were with Phoenix, and he made the second team in his first year with the Knicks.<\/p>\n

In the history of the game, there have been 77 players that have made at least five All-NBA teams. That number drops to 65 who have made at least five All-NBA first or second teams, a list that includes Stoudemire. Every player in that latter group who is eligible is in the Hall of Fame. The only player who is eligible with at least five All-NBA nods that isn\u2019t currently in is Kevin Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Similarity Scores<\/h3>\n

Basketball Reference has similarity scores for every player which states which players they are most similar to when looking at their win shares. The six players that Stoudemire is most similar to are Grant Hill<\/a>, Kevin Love<\/a>, Elgin Baylor<\/a>, Elton Brand<\/a>, Cliff Hagan<\/a>, and Chris Mullin<\/a>. Love is still active, but in all likelihood is a future Hall of Famer. The only one who isn\u2019t in (other than Love) is Brand, who certainly had a Hall of Very Good type of career.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Basketball Reference lists Stoudemire\u2019s Hall of Fame probability at 72.93%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dominant Postseasons<\/h3>\n

During much of Stoudemire\u2019s time with the Suns (and one season with the Knicks), he was often unstoppable. Stoudemire averaged at least 20 points per contest in seven straight full seasons from 2003-04 until 2010-11 (not including 2005-06 when he played just three games).<\/p>\n

No, Stoudemire did not appear in an NBA Finals. That doesn\u2019t mean he shrank come playoff time. Take a look at some of the playoff series averages he had during his career.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • 2005 Western Conference Semifinals (won vs. Mavericks): six games, 28.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.0 blocks, 54.5% field goal shooting<\/li>\n
  • 2005 Western Conference Finals (lost vs. Spurs): five games, 37.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, 55.0% field goal shooting<\/li>\n
  • 2007 Western Conference First Round (won vs. Lakers): five games, 24.2 points, 13.6 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 54.9% field goal shooting<\/li>\n
  • 2007 Western Conference Semifinals (lost vs. Spurs): five games, 26.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.0 blocks, 50.0% field goal shooting<\/li>\n
  • 2010 Western Conference Finals (lost vs. Lakers): six games, 25.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 52.6% field goal shooting<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Those weren\u2019t Stoudemire\u2019s only productive postseason series, but those were some of his best.<\/p>\n

    Add it all up, and Amar\u2019e Stoudemire certainly has a strong case to be called a Basketball Hall of Fame player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 finalists were announced on Thursday. Former NBA players that were annnounced aa finalists include Carmelo Anthony, Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard, and Amar\u2019e Stoudemire. While Anthony and Howard are likely getting inducted on their first ballot, Stoudemire presents an interesting case. This is the first time that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":113446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,28],"tags":[610,4300,263,3694],"class_list":["post-113428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-suns","tag-amare-stoudemire","tag-basketball-hall-of-fame","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113449,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113428\/revisions\/113449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}