"Standing Tall and Talented," Amaré Stoudemire certainly lived up to his nickname STAT in his 2005-06 debut Thursday night.

The forward-center returned to the Suns starting lineup for the first time this season after missing 66 games following knee surgery. Looking anything but timid out on the court against the visiting Blazers, Stoudemire had a team-high tying 20 points to along with a team-high tying nine rebounds in only 19 minutes of play.

For the first time in the regular season, Eddie House got to play alongside the former Rookie of the Year and says STAT will play a major role in the Suns’ upcoming playoff run.

“It was real big for us,” House said. “It was uplifting to us to see our big fella out there and back at full strength, ready to make a championship run. Seeing him out there flowing the way he was flowing, making strong moves with the basketball and creating with the basketball, he looked like he was ready. He has been practicing with us for the past couple of days, and he is ready.”

Playmaker Steve Nash was also impressed with Stoudemire’s performance.

“I thought Amare was terrific,” the All-Star guard said. “It was an unbelievable performance for someone who hasn’t played in as long as he has.”

And just to make sure that people knew he was really back, with 5:36 left in the game Stoudemire had his first dunk of the season and the crowd went wild. Four minutes and 10 seconds later, Amaré checked out of the game to a standing ovation, but the Suns knew that one dunk would help put to rest any fears the public had about the big man’s return.

“That was the most important thing,” House said.

If Only He Could Have Waited Until Saturday

The Portland Trail Blazers may have managed a 10-point, 111-101 victory over the Suns earlier this month, but riding that momentum wasn’t near enough to counteract the huge emotional lift of Amaré Stoudemire’s return and make it two in a row.

“Happy to see him back on the court, but I wish he would have waited another game,” Blazers guard Sebastian Telfair laughed. “He looked good. He was spinning, had the moves and was going to the basket.”

Portland forward Travis Outlaw had the dubious task of guarding Amaré throughout the game and thought his counterpart was impressive.

“For him coming off surgery, he looked pretty good,” Outlaw said.

Amaré’s Shooting Wasn’t the Only Thing With a Swoosh

No. 32 started and finished the game as a force. Stoudemire had a slam that brought the sellout crowd to its feet. His first shot of the night was a 19 footer that hit nothing but net. Not only did his jumper look good, he was also six of seven from the line and pulled down nine boards.

And when he wasn’t busy looking good out there, Amare was plain just looking good.

In his first game back, Stoudemire sported the start of the old school handle-bar chops like Clyde “The Glide” Frazier made famous in the 1970s. Down low, STAT also sported a new pair of kicks – the Nike Air Total Force Max.

After signing his big endorsement deal with the shoe manufacturer last year, Stoudemire’s appeared in three commercials for Nike. The latest commercial, Nike House of Hoops, features Amaré with the shoes he wore in his comeback on Thursday night.

“They felt good,” he said. “They felt light, and it always feels good to step on the court with a pair of Nike’s on.”

Amaré had a little say in the designing of the Air Total Force Max.

“I got to choose the color waves, but they aren’t the actual Stoudemires,” he added. “Those will be coming pretty soon.”

According to Amaré, he will be completely hands-on in the design of the soon-to-be-released Nike signature Stoudemires. In the mean time, he will continue to rattle rims with the Air Total Force Max featured in the Nike House of Hoops.