Who is former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire and why was he arrested over the weekend?
The line between discipline and physical abuse, is not thin when it comes to raising kids. At any rate, that appears to not have mattered to the former NBA star.
The former NBA star may now be facing some legal problems, after he appears to have crossed a line during a confrontation with one of his daughters.
Amar’e Stoudemire arrested after assaulting daughter
According to recent reports, former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire was arrested Saturday on domestic violence charges, following allegations that he punched one of his teenage daughters in the jaw during an argument. NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003, Stoudemire who also spent years between the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks, now faces a misdemeanor battery charge.
As per the police report, the dispute began when the victim’s grandmother called her, at which point she responded in a way that Stoudemire apparently did not like. It is understood, that an argument ensued between father and daughter over the notion of whether she had an “attitude,” before Stoudemire allegedly punched her on the right side of her face for “talking back again.” Further to that, Stoudemire then allegedly slapped his daughter in the face and then once more on the left side of her body. Following the troubling events, the girl’s mother, Stoudemire’s ex-wife reportedly showed investigators photos of her daughter crying with blood on her face. Where Stoudemire himself is concerned, Police were told by the former NBA player that his daughter was upset because “she received a whooping from him for being disrespectful and liar.” It’s worth mentioning that the report did not indicate which of his two daughters - ages 14 and 17 - were involved in the incident. Stoudemire was later released from jail on a $1,500 bond and has since released a statement in which he completely denied any wrong doing.
A bit about Amar’e Stoudemire’s NBA Career
A six-time NBA All-Star, Stoudemire played basketball in the NBA from 2002 to 2020. Acknowledged as a promising player after his above-mentioned Rookie of the Year achievement, he never did manage to hit the highest heights, with his biggest moment coming in the 2004 Athens Olympics, when he won a bronze medal with the United States men’s basketball team. Aside from New York and Phoenix where he split the majority of his career, the big man also had stints with the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat.
Stoudemire would eventually go on to make a name for himself on the international scene playing in both Japan and Israel. In 2020, he would actually become a champion in the Israeli Basketball Premier League with Maccabi Tel Aviv, as well as league MVP. Following his time overseas, Stoudemire actually returned to the NBA but as a coach with the Brooklyn Nets in the form of a player development assistant. That post came to an end in May of this year, when he announced that he would not be returning to the team for the 2022-23 season. Interestingly, Stoudemire also found success off the court and on the screen, appearing in a number of television series and even a pair of films. From Law & Order: SVU, to Entourage, to Sesame Street and even the hugely popular romantic film “New Year’s Eve,” the one-time baller appears to have had some decent screen credits.