posted May 12, 2005 at 15:41 EST in NBA Betting Trends

Anywhere you look you’ll see Amare Stoudemire, lately.  On the cover of ESPN the Magazine, and Inside Stuff, the in-house publication of the NBA.

He was the subject of a long feature story in a recent edition of The Sporting News.

He played in his first All-Star Game last month and participated in his second slam-dunk contest.

But Stoudemire's official coming-out party as an NBA superstar occurred the Friday night of All Star Weekend, when he and Miami’s Shaquille O'Neal co-hosted an invitation-only Red Carpet party at a Denver nightclub called Serengeti.

If you can even hang with The Diesel, let alone co-host parties, you are definitely in the upper tier of the NBA’s pecking order.  And, at 22, Amare’s only been able to go into bars legally for a year.

O'Neal and Stoudemire became friends when Stoudemire, then a high school player in Orlando, asked O'Neal for an autograph. They kept in touch and now they're two of the alpha males in the NBA.

"I knew he'd do this," Shaq said. Not many others did.

It was just three years ago that most of the NBA viewed Stoudemire with equal parts suspicion and mistrust. He was the kid who went to six high schools but only played two seasons, the kid with the mother and older brother in jail, the kid who probably would waste his extraordinary talent because of his questionable character and troubled background.

But Stoudemire wowed the Suns in a workout before the 2002 draft, Phoenix was ecstatic to get him with the ninth pick, and, now, here he is, at 22, one of the best big men in the NBA.

The concern teams had about Stoudemire becomes an even more egregious misjudgment when the list of players taken ahead of him in the '02 draft is reviewed:

  Yao Ming, Houston.

  Jay Williams, Chicago.

  Mike Dunleavy, Golden State.

  Drew Gooden, Memphis.

  Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Denver.

  Dajuan Wagner, Cleveland.

  Nene, Denver.

  Chris Wilcox, Los Angeles Clippers.

There's not an NBA executive around who would trade Stoudemire for any of them with the possible exception of Yao. And, again other than Yao, no three other players on that list would be even close to an acceptable price for Stoudemire maybe not even four or all of them.

"I don't think they did their homework," Stoudemire said. "I think they looked more at my family and my situation than they did me."

Stoudemire, Cleveland's LeBron James, 20, and Miami's Dwyane Wade, 23, were the focus of much of the media attention at the All Star Game. The "young guns," as Stoudemire calls his brethren, have trashed the notion that kids can't prosper in a man's league, and their success flies in the face of commissioner David Stern's desire to raise the minimum age limit from 18 to 20 when the league's collective bargaining agreement expires this year.

"I think if young guys come in responsibly and understand the game of basketball and work hard at getting better, it's OK," Stoudemire said.

Perhaps that is the greatest surprise of Stoudemire's emergence as a world-class player. Everyone knew he had the talent. What no one could predict was his desire to get better and his willingness to put in the work.

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich has marveled at Stoudemire's development, both from afar and as an assistant coach on last summer's US men's Olympic basketball team.

"Amare was an athletic phenomenon and a dunker when he came into the league," Popovich said. "There wasn't much variety in his game. He'd go one way only – to his right -- and he'd be like a bull in a china shop.

"Now he goes both ways. Now he can hit the midrange jumper. Now he runs the floor and rebounds at both ends. Amare has put in the time. Last summer, even though he wasn't playing much, he would stay after practice and work on his bank shots or his moves to the left. That's how great players are made."

Remarkably, Stoudemire has just scratched the surface of his game. Suns coach Mike D'Antoni believes that when Stoudemire improves defensively and learns he can't take nights off, "the sky's the limit. He should be one of the five best players in the league."

That's not enough for Stoudemire. He wants to be the best, and for those who think that's not possible, he'll remind you that few thought he'd be this good this fast.

"This is just the beginning for me," Stoudemire said of his All-Star appearance. "I'm going to be back. I really and truly believe that with enough work there's nothing I can't accomplish."

Few knowledgeable NBA observers doubt that or Amare Stoudemire now.