X-mas Eve News: Amare's kicks for kids

[SwingMan]

Amaré spreads cheer to children (http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/1223sunsnb1224.html)
Suns star hosts 156 underprivileged kids

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/pics/1223amare.jpg
Amaré Stoudemire reacts after a shot during a Suns' practice at US Airways Center this season.

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 23, 2007 11:18 PM

Amaré Stoudemire knows he has not approached the status that Michael Jordan held, but the Suns center thinks about how he would have felt if his idol had visited him when Stoudemire was a kid.

"I would've been all ears and taking in everything he said," Stoudemire said. "It would've been simply amazing."

That is why Stoudemire came with a message Sunday when he held a party for 156 children who have been abused or neglected and are in foster care or other programs offered by Black Family and Child Services.
http://www.azcentral.com/imgs/clear.gifhttp://www.azcentral.com/imgs/clear.gif

Kids received gifts and took photos. Their families and 400 others received a food box, toiletry box and snack bag in partnership with Feed the Children.

Stoudemire did it to emphasize education to the kids.

"I probably won't reach all of them, but I'm sure a few will change their lives," he said.

To attend, each child had to write an essay on why education is important.

"Many of these children need somebody like Amaré, because we know he has been through a lot," said Mary Black, the service agency's executive director. "Amaré can inspire them."

In more holiday help, guard Marcus Banks gave out $250 gift cards to mothers through Helping Hands for Single Moms at a Valley mall Friday.

Players and coaches hosted a toy party for 100 foster children at US Airways Center on Friday. Suns Charities and Suns Wives sponsored kids toys for the Salvation Army Christmas Dinner.

Back to Bell's back

Suns guard Raja Bell's back improved Sunday after he missed Saturday's win over Toronto because of the return of spasms that had sidelined him for a week last month.

"I might not have had a lot of sympathy for someone with back spasms, having never had them," he said. "But after having them, that initial feeling takes your breath away. After that, it becomes a challenge to do little things - tie your shoes, get out of a chair, get into a car. When you can't do those things, you're not going to play basketball."

Free throws

Chris Bosh was not the first Toronto star to wear out the free-throw line against Phoenix. Bosh's 22 free throws Saturday tied a Suns opponent record set by Vince Carter when he played for Toronto in a 2000 loss. It also tied the US Airways Center record shared by Carter and Charles Barkley.

• Banks had played three minutes in December, a month in which the Suns have practiced little, before Saturday's 22-minute outing. He had eight points and three assists. Banks said he tried to stay sharp at home, playing with his younger brother and cousins. "I could come in and do that anytime," Banks said.

• Phoenix has five players averaging at least 16 points - Stoudemire (21.0), Steve Nash (17.3), Leandro Barbosa (17.3), Shawn Marion (16.3) and Grant Hill (16.0). The only NBA team to ever do that with players who appeared in 70 percent of the games was the 1957-58 Boston Celtics, with Bill Sharman (22.3), Bob Cousy (18.0), Tom Heinsohn (17.8), Bill Russell (16.6) and Frank Ramsey (16.5).

[k_kwan]

Good man Amare, good man.

[SunsRIt]

They called Amare "Stat-O-Claus" on the TV news story. Pretty funny.

[AlanS]

DJ Strawberry news:

Second-Half Rally Boosts 14ers over Thunderbirds
14ers 109, Thunderbirds 94 (F)

DENVER, Dec. 23 – The Colorado 14ers completed a big second-half comeback to beat the Albuquerque Thunderbirds 109-94 at the BroomfieldEventCenteron on Sunday night. After trailing by 20 points in the second quarter, Colorado completed a 40-point turnaround early in the fourth period, and cruised to the 15-point victory.

With the win, the 14ers improve to 9-4 on the season while the Thunderbirds fall to 4-5.

Brian Greene returned to the 14ers lineup after missing seven games to an injury and led the way with 18 points and four steals. Kaniel Dickens added 17 points, and Lou White came off the bench for 14 points, four rebounds and three assists.

“Brian did a nice job defensively inside returning from his injury,” said 14ers head coach Joe Wolf. “And Lou White came off the bench to run the show -- playing good, solid defense and leading his team, which we needed from the back-up point guard tonight.”

Albuquerque ran out to a double-digit lead after starting the game on a 24-5 run. The Thunderbirds led by as many as 20 points in the first half before Colorado began its comeback.

The 14ers outscored the Thunderbirds 34-15 in the third quarter, led by nine points from Dickens and eight from Mo Charlo. The 14ers expanded the lead to 20 points in the fourth.

D.J. Strawberry made his debut for Albuquerque on assignment from the Phoenix Suns. Strawberry finished with 26 points, four rebounds and three assists. T-Birds guard Abdul Mills scored 18 of his 26 points in the first half to match Strawberry for game-high honors.

Albuquerque returns home to take on the Utah Flash on Friday night.
---

Strawberry: 42 mins, 10/20 FGs, 0/2 3FG, 6/10 FT, 4 reb, 3 asst, 4 steals, 4 TO, 5 PF.

[phnart]

DJ-Alando-Boris-Pike-Marks would own the D-League.

[tbrkingofthesouth]

Good job Stat...I like Banks comments..I always felt that D'Antoni had him on a short leash for some reason Kerr stepping in and Raja's injury could be a blessing in disguise.I hope we go with the Big line-up on Christmas day

[sunsdotcom]

awesome game from yi jianlian


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbSlCEFmsi0

[JediSkywalker]

Good for Amare and good for the kids. It is always nice to see the players go beyond the basketball court.

[zara_drummer]

Skiles got the "ax"... Merry Christmas to the Skiles family...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3167808

[JediSkywalker]

I feel bad for Skiles. It must be tough to be fired in the middle of the season.

[scosuns]

Good for Amare. Very nice.

[Superbone]

I feel bad for Skiles. It must be tough to be fired in the middle of the season.

Let alone, Christmas Eve day. Ouch.

[Superbone]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2008&week=8&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines

Suns are still #4 in the latest ESPN rankings and they had this to say:


For all the angst about their defense and their collective effort and the Suns' start in general, this team is +8. That's eight more road wins than home losses, while no other team in the West rates better than a +4.

[scosuns]

That's because we've played so many damn road games. I swear Stern did this on purpose. Anyways, it will probably benefit us in the end. I hope.

[singh]

scott skiles fired today
man that sucks

merry christmas

[Bogyo]

you stay classy chichago

[ShelC]

We should hire him as defensive coordinator.

[Bogyo]

We should hire him as defensive coordinator.

True!

[SunsDevils]

We should hire him as defensive coordinator.


I hope you guys are joking.

[DrSublime]

yea... a big definite no thank you on a second term with Scott Skiles as any type of coach

the only good thing about him at this point is that he still holds the single game record of assists w/30 back in the old Orlando Magic days when Shaq was still in shape.

[JediSkywalker]

Skiles led the Chicago Bulls to three playoff appearances. I think they even won the first round last season. Did the management really expect him to make an NBA finals appearance? How did they know after 25 games that the team will not do better in the remainder of the season? I am no fan of Skiles but it irks me to see anyone lose the job at the worst possible time.

BTW the Celtics have not yet played two road games in a row against western conference teams. Even their upcoming 4-game road trip is against weak teams in the west. No wonder they have just 3 losses so far. I would like to see the western teams whip them and see where they rank after road games against SA, Dallas, Phx, Denver and even Portland. Did they get such an easy schedule because of their poor finish last season? I really hope the Suns can score a ton of points against them, but I have to admit KG brings up their defense to unbelievable levels. It will be a real challenge.

[wpmiller42]

Probably wasn't the most tactful time for chicago to fire Skiles, but honestly, I bet his family is thrilled. They should be pretty well off, and now they can enjoy the holidays together, instead of wondering how to guard jason kidd.

[JediSkywalker]

Does Skiles still get his full salary, as per the contract? If yes, he can just relax for sometime and find another coaching position next year. I would not mind being fired if I am paid a few millions just to sit and do nothing for a year. :lol

[scosuns]

Whether he gets it or not, the man is already rich. He has made enough millions in his time. He'll be fine. The only person who we should worry about is Latrell Sprewell. How will he feed his family? Poor poor guy.

[JackArse]

Unlikely to be a friendly affair
Suns' matchup today vs. Lakers

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 24, 2007 09:05 PM
Tomorrow's Suns-Lakers matchup is the most appealing among tomorrow's three Christmas Day NBA games, but not just because their coaches verbally sparred in November or because they are separated by two games in the Pacific Division standings.

Those were just the teams' gifts to ABC, which has the Suns playing on Christmas for the first time in 11 years. The rivalry has turned in the Suns' favor after years as the West's bridesmaid, with the Lakers getting the ring.

"It's really good and that's why it should be a great game," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Neither team loves each other for all the wars we've been through."




The animosity did not start last month, but it sure did intensify when the Lakers spoiled the Suns' home opener with a 119-98 rout. The game's low point came when the Lakers led by 33 with 4:45 remaining and coach Phil Jackson doubled up on a D'Antoni timeout by calling his own. Jackson later said it was to avoid an upcoming television timeout and compared the finish to a "mercy killing."

D'Antoni was infuriated, shouting at the Lakers bench, "That's OK. We'll play three more times."

"My video guy was kind enough to leave that on tape this morning so we could view his demonstration after the timeout," Jackson told Los Angeles reporters Monday.

D'Antoni already was miffed before that Nov. 2 loss when he was relayed Jackson's comment that the Suns' window of championship opportunity was "closing real fast." The in-game incident had him boiling into the postgame.

"I thought he disrespected our players, but he likes to play the mind games," D'Antoni said then. "That's fine. He might want to try to do it in playoff time when we bust them every time."

The waters did not calm any when Jackson said D'Antoni was not "thinking straight" and that D'Antoni's "immediate response is to think it was about him and not about his team."

D'Antoni has not wanted to engage Jackson by revisiting the war of words.

"He likes to play those little games," said D'Antoni, who joked to Suns employees before the 2006 playoffs that he was reading Zen for Dummies. "Bottom line, we didn't play well and we were embarrassed and reacted to two straight timeouts. They're too good of a team to mess with him."

The disdain goes back the past two postseasons, when the teams faced off in the first round. The Suns sat out Steve Nash and Raja Bell for the 2006 finale to set up a playoff pairing with the Lakers rather than Sacramento. The Suns wound up having to fight out of a 3-1 hole to win the series.

Intensity escalated when Kwame Brown knocked down Boris Diaw and straddled him. It rose even more when Bell clotheslined Kobe Bryant.

Jack McCallum's book, :07 Seconds or Less, revealed more Suns coaches' criticisms of the Lakers behind closed doors, from calling Brown "awful" to calling Jackson "The Penguin."

"I love it," ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said of the coaches' contempt. "It's great. The only true rivalries occur in the playoffs when teams see each other numerous times. It's just natural when you play against teams over and over again, there's going to be generated dislike. It's a great subplot."

More than anything, Phoenix could use its first consecutive wins since Dec. 7.

"It's going to be a huge game," Suns center Amaré Stoudemire said. "We're definitely looking forward to it because of what happened here in Phoenix.

"We're ready."

Notes
The NBA's new Nash commercial will debut tomorrow.

• With 19 more minutes played, Phoenix's Shawn Marion will pass Dick Van Arsdale and trail only Alvan Adams' club record of 27,203. Marion is at 24,244.

• Nash is 14 assists shy of Lakers great Jerry West, who is 23rd on the all-time list.


weee

[Bogyo]

No, I was not really joking about the defensive cordinator part. I think that the other coaches could tell him to ease up / STFU when he is acting up, becouse it's not part of our culture. It's not like he could do any damage (worst case scenario: players don't give a s&#t what he is saying, and everything says the same), and he could definatley help with our D.