One of the NBA’s most famous pick-and-roll combinations is reuniting as coaches in Brooklyn.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, former NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire will serve as an assistant coach on the Nets under their new coach, Steve Nash. Stoudemire and Nash were teammates on the Suns from 2004-10 as one of the league’s most feared guard-big man combinations in the early 2000s.
Nash was hired to coach the Nets earlier this month in what will be his first head coaching job in the NBA. He spent the previous five seasons as a player development consultant with the Golden State Warriors, where he contributed to two championship teams and made four consecutive trips to The Finals.
Stoudemire played 14 season in the NBA, averaging 18.9 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. He was the 2002-03 Rookie of the Year, a six-time All-Star and made the All-NBA team five times in his career as well. His last NBA season came in 2015-16, when he appeared in 52 games with the Miami Heat. He was then signed by the New York Knicks — with whom he logged 4 1/2 seasons in the early 2010s — in a ceremonial gesture by the team.
As a member the Knicks, Stoudemire averaged 17.3 ppg and 6.7 rpg in helping New York win the 2013 Atlantic Division title. From Nov. 28-Dec. 15, 2010, Stoudemire broke the franchise’s 48-year record held by Willie Naulls by scoring 30-plus-points in nine consecutive games.
Most recently, Stoudemire spent the last two seasons with Tri-State of the Big 3 league. Prior to that, he played two seasons for Hapoel Jerusalem in Israel, a team he owns a share of ownership in. He helped them to the 2016 Israeli Basketball League Cup and the 2017 Israeli League championship.
