The Suns opened the preseason against The Partizan Belgrade club. I have no idea who these guys are. The name of the team makes no sense it sounds like jibberish to me. It was a 118 – 80 victory for the Suns. However the real story is Amare Stoudemire’s return to the court. Stoudemire looked impressive considering he has been out for 7 months. From azcentral.com; “Amaré Stoudemire played his first game since February and flashed his full-throttle self when he filled lanes for transition slams on successive third-quarter plays.” That sounds great, like I said before, if this guy can make a second career comeback it would say a lot about his character and determination. Amare sounds like he is ahead of schedule but Alvin Gentry believes he still has a ways to go. From valleyofthesuns; “To take seven months off not to have any activity, to jump right into training camp and two-a-days and then to play my first game here tonight, I feel great,” Amare said. “I feel like I’m ahead of schedule as far as my cardio and my legs. I felt horribly day one of training camp, but I feel great now. We just started preseason. I have the rest of the month to get myself totally together. “
Added Gentry, “I think he looked OK, but he’s not anywhere close to where he’s gonna be. Conditioning-wise he’s still a ways away, but he’s a lot farther right now than he was last week, so that’s a positive.” Amare played just over 17 minutes and scored 12 points and added 5 rebounds. Even played a little defense? Wow, does this mean it’s the new and improved Stoudemire?
