Amar’e Promises “Vengeance”

by Ben Osborne

I’m out in Newport Beach, CA for the Nike Trainer 1 Media Summit, a really nice event celebrating the release of Nike’s new training shoe, which we’ll be covering in great detail in this summer’s issue of KICKS Magazine. To help talk about the shoe’s attributes, Nike brought in six of its top athletes to talk amongst themselves and the media: Troy Polamalu, Adrian Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald, Brandon Roy, Bryan Clay and Amar’e Stoudemire. Hearing all of them talk shoes and training was cool, but once I had a grasp of all that stuff, the basketball journalist in me was focused on Amar’e, who is coming off eye surgery and hearing his name bandied about in trade talk.

After rapping with him about the Nike shoes (again, make sure you get KICKS to read more), I asked him a few questions about his current status. Health-wise, Amar’e said he’s just about 100 percent and is ready to start going “full bore” soon. Team-wise, STAT said, “I’d be happy to be a Sun, but I’m not positive I will be.”

Well, I asked, what do you think is going to happen?

“Whatever’s clever. Whoever wants me, I’ll be ready for them. I’ll be back with a vengeance. That’s what you can call me next season: Die Hard Vengeance.”

I know one thing: I’m glad I won’t be guarding him under the basket.