Already at 33 years of age, Amar'e Stoudemire has yet to give up on his dream to one day return to the NBA. In fact, in a recent interview, the six-time All-Star claims that he remains prepared should the opportunity for a comeback arise.
Speaking to the Israel-based based sports website Walla, Stoudemire claimed that just this offseason, a number of teams in the league were looking at the prospect of signing the current Hapoel Jerusalem star player.
“I was very close to returning to the NBA, many teams were interested, but I did not want to wait any longer,” he said, via Yiannis Bouranis of TalkBasket.net. There can always be teams in the NBA that will need me, and I’m always ready.”
That's a pretty bold claim for a player that we have not seen in the league for the past two seasons. The again, this is the former Rookie of the Year and a five-time All-NBA stud we're talking about here, so this is certainly a possibility.
Stoudemire went on to explain that it was his choice to return to the Israeli capital and play his basketball in the Middle East.
“If I stayed in the US and waited, it would have happened and I would have gone back to the league,” added the 6-foot-10 big man. “Now the training camps are starting and I wanted to continue practicing and playing, so I came back here. I have an opt-out option in my contract which can be used during the season.”
Amar'e Stoudemire has made it abundantly clear that despite already putting pen to paper on a deal with Hapoel Jerusalem, he will pack his bags in an instant if an NBA team comes calling.
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