Jerry West Regrets Not Drafting Amar’e Stoudemire

West tells the Commercial Appeal that he could’ve had STAT, but instead drafted Drew Gooden. And for that, he gives himself a FAIL: “The year we drafted Drew Gooden. He has been in the league a long time. But we could have had Amare Stoudemire. He would have added some cache and star power to this team. It’s not that Drew is a bad player but Stoudemire is a star. We didn’t look at him the way we should have. And you know, everyone thinks the Grizzlies have done a terrible job drafting and they haven’t. The Griz are ranked ninth in drafting in terms of their history. But I’ll always take the blame for players who didn’t turn out the way we would have liked. Overall, fans can be very critical and it’s easy to be critical. But they’re not as critical as those of us who work in these positions.”