Amar’e Stoudemire retired from the NBA as a Knick, but he is already preparing for a comeback. According to David Pick, Stoudemire has signed a deal to play with the Israeli Team he co-owns – Hapoel Jerusalem.
An @iamdpick report says the deal is done to put Amar'e Stoudemire on the floor with the Israeli club where he's a part owner with @oriallon
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 31, 2016
Amar’e has expressed interest in playing in Jerusalem in past interviews, so it’s no surprise he is taking this route now that he is officially retired from the NBA. In 2014, he said the following to the NY Post about his plans after NBA retirement:
We’ll see,’’ Stoudemire told The Post. “You can’t rule anything out. The future is unknown and so if I have an opportunity to [play in Israel] and am still in great health, it would be great. I have one more year left on my deal and we’ll go from there.’’
This signing would make Stoudemire one of the best NBA players to ever play in Israel and potentially fill a lot of seats for the team he co-owns. In the past, Stoudemire has referred to himself as “culturally Jewish”, observes Jewish holidays, and also applied for Israeli citizenship in 2013.