‘I Got To Guard Shaquille O’Neal’: Amar’e Stoudemire Initially Hated Playing Center For Mike D’Antoni’s Suns

Amar’e Stoudemire won Rookie of the Year after a great first year and an even better sophomore season. Many analysts portrayed him as the next great power forward. However, Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni had other ideas. He was keen on helping Phoenix rise from its ashes and become the best team in the league. The front office shared his vision and traded for Mavericks star Steve Nash. To maximize the guard’s potential and turn the team into a juggernaut, D’Antoni forced Stoudemire to change his position, which the forward didn’t enjoy.

The head coach wanted an upbeat, high-tempo offense, and knew that wasn’t possible with center Jake Voskuhl. So he decided to play his star power forward at the 5. Defensively, it was a painstaking experience for Stoudemire.

However, he put his strengths to great use on offense and took advantage of his size. Detailing the challenges of the positional change on The OGs podcast, the Suns icon said,

“At first I didn’t it. I didn’t want to play the 5. I’m like, ‘Man I gotta guard Shaq. I’m 6-foot-10, 245 [pounds]. This man is 300 pounds and 7-foot-1. I got to guard him? I got to guard these centers?’ You had real centers back then… But if I had to guard them they had to guard me. And I can run all day and then they gonna be tired [in the] third, fourth quarter. And then I can rack them up.” 

The head coach’s ingenuity turned Stoudemire into a superstar. His scoring average ballooned from 20.6 points to 26 per game. He earned All-Star and All-NBA nods. The Suns’ win total rose from 29 in 2003-04 to 62 in 2004-05. Nash was named the MVP and D’Antoni won the Coach of the Year award.

They couldn’t cap off a wonderful season with a title as the Spurs beat them 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals. Regardless, D’Antoni’s risky decision to move Stoudemire from forward to center brought a seismic change to the NBA.

D’Antoni pioneered the advent of the small-ball era

Until the 2000s, NBA teams were positionally rigid. Players had defined roles and were rarely asked to deviate from their tasks. However, D’Antoni changed that with his Suns team. He used his players’ versatility and fielded many different lineups to exploit matchups that favored his squad. Explaining the head coach’s philosophy, Stoudemire said,

“When Mike D’Antoni came, he added a little more offensive flair to the game. He allowed us to be versatile. I went from playing four to playing five and then sometimes back to four. Shawn [Marion] went from playing the three to playing the four.” 

D’Antoni’s belief that he could run the opposition off the court was revolutionary. Teams were no longer scared of fielding undersized guards, forwards, and centers. The Suns’ head coach showed them that players who were lacking in size could make it up with speed and athleticism.

Small-ball is now a staple tactic in the NBA. Every team has a lineup with a forward playing as a center and the offense pushing the pace on fast breaks. D’Antoni pioneered it with Stoudemire and deserves all the credit for his bravery, tactics, and execution.