Amar’e Stoudemire was one of the premier players of his generation.
The six-time NBA All-Star was one of the most feared big men during the late 2000s and early 2010s, helping mold the Phoenix Suns into one of the top Western Conference contenders while later on helping the New York Knicks become a playoff contender. During Stoudemire’s tenure in Phoenix, the Suns advanced to two Western Conference Finals, posted the league’s best record during the 2004-05 season and Steve Nash won back-to-back MVP awards.
During Stoudemire’s tenure in New York, the Knicks posted three straight playoff appearances and broke a 12-year streak of not winning a playoff series.
The 43-year-old rightfully earned his place in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this year, with former teammate Steve Nash and ex-head coach Mike D’Antoni in attendance. It’s only fitting that Stoudemire is now hosting a podcast series, Amongst Legends, through Playmaker that sees the basketball great go one-on-one with some of the game’s best of all time.
During the first two episodes, Stoudemire interviews WNBA great Candace Parker and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady. He’ll also be interviewing his former head coach, D’Antoni, in one of the upcoming episodes. Stoudemire describes the eight-episode series bluntly — it’s him interviewing only Hall of Fame talents and giving a glimpse to fans on how they were able to achieve such great heights.
“We’re doing this right now — the first season we’re interviewing only Hall of Famers,” said Stoudemire in a one-on-one interview with Heavy Sports. “We’re dealing with only legends at the moment, so this is where it starts. What we’re doing is, we’re tapping into kind of a bit of their understanding of what it means to become a legend. How did they become a legend? What perseverance they went through? What type of challenges they faced? How did they have the perseverance and the mindset to get to where they end up being in the Hall of Fame? Trying to give that message over to the youth as well, so they can see what it takes to be great. That’s the mindset here with Amongst Legends.”
Amar’e Stoudemire on Goal of Amongst Legends Podcast
Stoudemire had previously done work on ESPN as a television analyst for their NBA coverage, but he’s never really pursued the podcast realm until now. He said the idea of the podcast started coming together right before his Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction. The former Suns and Knicks star is also currently involved in his post-basketball career which is being a police officer in Miami-Dade county.
“I listen to the highlights and clips of certain podcasters,” said Stoudemire. “I listen to more lectures more so than podcasts. But yeah, I do like what everyone’s doing in the podcast space. It’s very entertaining, and I wanted to really just tap into the legends and really figure out what it takes. What is that formula to get to the level of greatness and being able to now extrapolate that information from them to give it over to the youth so they can learn from these guys and gals who are Hall of Famers.”
Amar’e Stoudemire on His Vision For His Future Podcasts
Stoudemire said this first season of his podcast — he won’t reveal the other names just yet– will focus on Hall of Fame talent, but in the future will tackle interviews with even bigger legends.
“This first season is all Hall of Famers, and then it’s going to be strictly legends from that point on, guys and gals who you think are legends, who transcended their space, who are looked at as pioneers in that space,” said Stoudemire. “But this first season going to be all Hall of Famers, and then from there we’re going to go and really tackle some big some big legends.”
Suns Legend Amar’e Stoudemire on New Podcast, What He’s Doing in Post-NBA Career