by Mike Ball
--raptors.com
February 21, 2003

Although Caron Butler is making some noise in Miami as of late, by all accounts this year’s Rookie of the Year hunt is a two-horse race.

Yao Ming was, of course the early favourite, but in the past couple of months the Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudemire has won himself the lion’s share of the ever-important first-place votes.

“I’ve seen the future of the NBA and his name is Amare Stoudemire. Don’t get me wrong Yao is good. Damn good. But Stoudemire is already dominating more guys who have been in the league for several years and he’s going to get much better. Mark this down; that guy is going to be scary,” warns Shaquille O’Neal.

Stoudemire and his Suns made their only appearance in Toronto on Friday night in, yet another, down to the wire nail-biter to which Raptor fans are becoming quite accustomed. The home side prevailed 92-89, as Antonio Davis tipped in a Morris Peterson miss and then nailed a pair of free throws to seal the win.

Stoudemire finished with 14 points on Friday night. Ron Turenne /NBAE/ Getty Images

Stoudemire chipped in with 14 points and six rebounds in only 23 minutes of game action.

The youngster is used to being in the starting lineup and logging bigger minutes, but according to a Suns’ team official, Stoudemire had violated a team rule and came off the bench in this contest.

The first thing you notice about Amare is his size. For a mere twenty-year-old, he is absolutely huge. Six foot ten inches tall and 245 pounds to be exact. Stoudemire plays power forward. The centre on his team is 6’8” and 220 pounds.

Not only does the kid have the body of a 30 year-old who’s been in the gym for 15 of those years, but he’s got touch as well.

At one point Friday night, while being guarded by the capable Jerome Williams at the top of the key, Stoudemire put the ball on the floor, threw a nasty spin move at JYD to lose him and threw down a mean one-handed slam in traffic. Twenty year-olds just don’t do that.

The rookie phenom’s high school career was fairly well documented as he attended six different schools, seeking out the right situation and apparently just having far too many people giving him advice.

He went through schools including Tracy McGrady’s Mount Zion Christian Academy, then forfeited his junior year of eligibility on a transfer before graduating last spring from Cypress Creek High School in Orlando, Florida. A full scholarship to attend Memphis University was offered before Amare decided to declare for the NBA draft.

No one seems to be saying he wasn’t ready.

“I’ve never seen a twenty year-old play that well,” said fellow R.O.Y. candidate Yao Ming. “If there aren’t more players like Stoudemire in the future, I think I can last.”

Through his first 54 games, he’s averaging 13.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per while playing for a pretty solid Western Conference team. He had his career best night only 31 games into the season in Minnesota, scoring 38 points and hauling down 16 rebounds.

Of the recent “jump from the gym class to the arena” players only Kevin Garnett’s 10.7 per game in 1995 break the double-digit barrier. Only Moses Malone, who averaged 18.8 points as a rookie in ’74 when he made the jump to the ABA, tops Amare’s numbers.

As Shaquille hinted at earlier, the fact that this kid is still raw is the scary part.

Not to mention the addition of the 20 year-old to the Phoenix Suns has improved the squad by leaps and bounds. He’s brought a certain toughness and swagger to the team that they’ve been sorely missing, probably since Sir Charles bolted the desert in search of a championship in Houston.

So although Yao is the most captivating rookie, merely for his unbelievable length and touch, Stoudemire will most likely take home the Rookie of the Year come spring, not only for his impressive numbers, but more so for his profound affect on the team around him.