Stoudemire "50-50" on Returning to Phoenix

According to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Amare Stoudemire is "50/50" on whether he will accept his $17.6 million player option to return to the Suns for the 2010-11 season.

“I was really looking forward to my entire career being in [Arizona],” Stoudemire said. “It kind of put a hold on a few of my decision-making things. … I don’t know if I’m sure if I want to play one more year here, or be gone, or sign an extension and play here for another six years or so.

“If they are loyal to me, I’m loyal to them. I’m a loyal person and always have been. My word is bond. I’d love to stay; the Suns have been phenomenal so far. But anything can change.”

Although I don't doubt that Amare is a loyal person, nor do I doubt that his word is bond, what is going to convince him to stick around in Phoenix? An aging Steve Nash? An even older Grant Hill? Jason Richardson? Sideshow Bob? The ugliest human of all time? Phoenix is going to have to make some type of move if they really want Amare to stick around.

As a Heat fan who's growing more and more skeptical of Miami's chances of landing Lebron (like there was ever a chance) or Chris Bosh, the thought of picking up Amare is definitely enticing. Bosh would be ideal next to Wade, but Amare certainly would be more than just a consolation prize. With that said, I've always been wary of Amare's diva act, as he's constantly making a fuss about being the first option on offense. If he comes to Miami, he's obviously going to have to defer to Wade and possibly even Beasley depending on his development next season.

Another concern about adding Stoudemire to the Heat is his defense. He's never been known as a great defender and if he were to be the Heat's starting center, a frontcourt of Beasley and Stoudemire might give up a lot of points inside. Although on the other end, they could be one of the best center/power forward duos in the league.

Back to reality, Amare recently finished a 10 day recovery from a minor operation to remove fluid from his right eye that involved lying face down, staring at the floor for 22 hours a day. Stoudemire says it was by far the hardest thing he's ever had to do in his life, which says a lot considering he's had to recover from microfracture knee surgery. The operation was a follow-up procedure to previous surgery to repair his partially detached retina. According to Stoudemire, his new pair of goggles will be bigger than what James Worthy wore back in the day.

“Being cool is definitely a big thing of mine, being swaggered up,” Stoudemire said. “But you definitely want to protect yourself, man. That’s the most important thing.”