No quarter

Suns' Stoudemire looks to rise highest in dunk contest

ATLANTA -- Suns rookie power forward Amare Stoudemire knows a thing or two about lofty expectations.

But even the 6-10 Rookie of the Year candidate couldn’t believe the advice teammate Stephon Marbury recently gave him on how to win Saturday’s Slam Dunk Contest.

"Steph told me to put a quarter on the top of the backboard, go get it and dunk [with the other hand]," Stoudemire said. "I was like, 'I don’t know if I can do that.'"

Hey, why not?

Stoudemire might be a longshot in Saturday’s dunk event -- which also includes Golden State’s Jason Richardson, New Jersey’s Richard Jefferson and Seattle’s Desmond Mason -- but he has shown this season that his reach should not be underestimated.

Despite coming straight from high school to the NBA, he ranks among the top five rookies in scoring, rebounding, blocks and field-goal percentage. Already in his brief career the 20-year-old has a 38-point game (against Kevin Garnett and the Timberwolves) and a 21-rebound effort against the Grizzlies.

Along the way he has pulled himself even with Rockets phenom Yao Ming in the race for Rookie of the Year. Adding a Slam Dunk title to his spectacular season surely wouldn’t hurt his cause.

"I want to win, but it’s going to be tough," says Stoudemire, who admits he’s probably fourth in the four-man field. "Jason Richardson. He’s a high-flyer. But then again all four of us are. It should be very exciting."

With raw power and cobra-like quickness, Stoudemire’s dunking style has been compared to Shawn Kemp and a young Shaquille O’Neal. Earlier this season he absolutely posterized Clippers 7-footer Michael Olowokandi with a ferocious tomahawk jam. "It felt like it was just me and the rim," Stoudemire recalled Friday with the cold-blooded intensity of a basketball Hannibal Lecter.

But if Stoudemire were to win the event, he’s going to have to overcome some serious hurdles. For one, he’s battling a sore right toe that has bothered him much of the past month. Also, no player as tall as 6-foot-10 has captured the crown since former Suns forward Larry Nance in 1984. The theory is that smaller players can get up in the air and create mid-flight. Hang time, in other words, tends to have a hypnotizing effect on judges.

"Probably so," says the 7-foot Garnett. "Look at what happened to Stromile Swift [a couple years back]. He can fly with the best of them. But he wasn’t picked because he was so tall it didn’t look like he was that high up."

Stoudemire says he intends to compensate for his height disadvantage by bringing a creativity and swagger to his dunks. He says he has two jams already choreographed, and will make up his final one depending on the situation.

Stoudemire says he is also drawing inspiration from Nance. In 1984, Nance entered the Slam Dunk field as a major underdog to Dominique Wilkins and Julius Erving. But the young Suns forward stole the show with a memorable offering in which he dunked two balls simultaneously.

"I wouldn’t mind being another guy from Phoenix to win it," Stoudemire says. "I saw him dunk those two balls while coming around the other side of the rim ... Pretty nice."

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Stoudemire has made himself one of the NBA’s top rookies. If he can somehow steal a Dunk Contest title, he just might silence the doubters once again. "I’ve got a little something special planned," he said.

For sure, Stoudemire will give no quarter. Even if he can’t quite reach one on the top of the backboard.

 

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