Amare Stoudemire Makes His Preseason Debut With Authority

The Suns' Amare Stoudemire had yet to play in a preseason game due to sustaining a torn iris in his right eye near the beginning of training camp. But it appears to be all healed up now, and STAT made his preseason debut in a double overtime (!) win over the Charlotte Bobcats.

Amare played about 17 and a half minutes, and for the most part, I thought he had trouble getting up to the game's speed. He seemed a bit slow defensively, and at first a bit hesitant on the offensive end as well. That probably had more to do with Amare coming off the bench than it did him being rusty, because once he got a feel for what was going on, he was able to drive down the middle of the lane and throw down a vicious tomahawk jam over the Bobcats' Alexis Ajinca. (I'd love to show you the highlight, but apparently double overtime West coast preseason games are not the priority of people in charge of such things.)

After the game, Amare talked (literally, between bites of barbecued chicken and baked potato) about getting back out there for the first time in a game situation.

"It was good to get a win out there in double overtime. Personally, I felt pretty good, in my first day back. I played 17, 17 and a half minutes out there, it felt good. Rhythm wasn't quite where I wanted it to be, but other than that, played solid defense out there, was able to get involved offensively, you know, that's all I can ask for."

Amare ended up with 11 points and four rebounds on 3-9 shooting, again, just getting back into the groove. But he did have basically the highlight of the night, so when asked about his monster dunk on Ajinca, he responded in Boris Diaw's direction: "That's how I treat Frenchmans." He repeated the line louder, but of course, being French and all, Diaw predictably chose to avoid the confrontation.