Amar’e Stoudemire. Image via: Getty Images
At 43, the former Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks star is starting a second career far from the hardwood. The college posted photos on X of the 6-foot-10 graduate with classmates and instructors. Stoudemire last played in the NBA in 2016. The Suns took him ninth overall in 2002 straight out of high school, and he was the only prep player picked in the first round. He averaged 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds as a rookie, won Rookie of the Year, and became the first player drafted out of high school to take the award. A 38-point game that December stood as the best total by a prep-to-pro player until LeBron James passed it a year later. In 2004-05, Stoudemire averaged 26 points, scored a career-high 50 against Portland and made his first All-Star team. He then put up 37 points a game against San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals, though the Suns lost in five. Microfracture surgery wiped out almost all of 2005-06. He came back to make the All-NBA first team in 2007.
Since then, he has won titles in Israel, worked as a Brooklyn Nets development assistant, and launched a wine label. Amar’e Stoudemire is heading into law enforcement. The Hall of Fame forward graduated this week from the Basic Law Enforcement Academy at Miami Dade College’s School of Justice and is set to begin work with the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department. Stoudemire did not leave as an ordinary cadet, either. The school also handed the forward a special award. His new beat is the county’s school police force, where the college expects a positive influence on younger people. Few players have made an impact as fast as Stoudemire did. The peak came next to Steve Nash.
New York signed the forward in 2010 for an estimated $99.7 million, and he answered with 25.3 points a night. He became the first Knicks player to start an All-Star Game since Patrick Ewing and set a franchise record with nine straight 30-point games. The Knicks bought out his contract in February 2015, and he finished with Dallas and Miami.
Knee and back problems cut into the next four seasons.
Stoudemire earned more than $165 million across 14 NBA seasons, so he does not need the work. Stoudemire announced his NBA retirement in July 2016 and kept playing overseas. He helped Hapoel Jerusalem win the Israeli league title in 2017. A return to that club in 2018 led to a short stint in China in 2019, where he averaged 19.3 points in 11 games. Then came Maccabi Tel Aviv, a second championship in 2020 and Finals MVP honors. The Brooklyn Nets hired him as a player development assistant that October, and he announced in May 2022 that he would not return for the next season. As a senior, he averaged 29.1 points, 15 rebounds, 6.1 blocks and 2.1 steals. He played in the 2002 McDonald’s All-American Game at Madison Square Garden alongside future Knicks teammates Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton.
Because of eligibility problems tied to his transcripts, a year at West Orange High in Winter Garden passed without a game.
He told Sports Illustrated why he wanted it anyway. It is “a real job” where the first priority is to protect and serve the community. He also pointed to two people from his past, a junior varsity coach and a favorite uncle. Both worked in law enforcement, and both steered him in the right direction. The road to the academy took some turns. He also holds a significant share of Hapoel Jerusalem and has a wine label. His high school path was just as scattered. He started at Lake Wales High, where academic ineligibility ended his freshman season, then went to Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, North Carolina. Midway through that year, Mount Zion’s coach started Emmanuel Christian Academy in an office building basement and took the team with him. The school folded before playing a game. Two seasons were enough. He was named Florida’s Mr. Scout.com ranked him the top player in the country. He committed to Memphis, then backed out and entered the draft.
Basketball, the Orlando Sentinel’s state player of the year and a USA Today first-team All-American.