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Amare Stoudemire for boost.org

While surfing sites I cam across this google ad of boost.org and Amar’e Stoudemire was their endorser. It intrigued me so I clicked on it and it led me to a page where there was the pic of Amar’e and two boxes. The first was had “wake-up calls” on it while the other one had “ringtone alarms.” What does this mean? It first looked like a regular site where you can have free ringtones but it was more than that. According to their site,

Boost is a project to get people talking to teens about their graduation. Four out of ten high school kids in America don’t from graduate high school. It’s a statistic that’s not only appalling, but silent.
Anything you can do to show support is a boost. It can be a conversation, a text message, a slap on the back, an email, or helping hand. There are a lot of teens who could use one.

So there you have it, Amar’e says “Wake Up!” Download one of Amare’s custom Boost Up alarm ringtones, or schedule a call from Amar’e to wake up a friend for school.

Here’s a video I saw on ESPN.com where they analyze if Amar’e Stoudemire will leave or will he stay and run ‘n gun as a Phoenix Sun.

You're out Porter, You're in Gentry

League sources say that team officials of the Phoenix Suns were meeting on Sunday afternoon with Alvin Gentry to finalize a deal for him replace Terry Porter as head head coach of the Suns.

As this deal is being finalized, Terry Porter said that he hasn’t heard anything from Suns officials and they will be meeting later today.

Gentry, who has had head coaching experience with the Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat, is the lead assistant and will be taking over the Suns for the remainder of the season.

Reasons for the firing of Porter are obvious as he wasn’t able to bring the defensive mindset that the management was looking for when he was in Detroit. Another is that the whole offense of the Suns became too slow and was focusing too much on Shaquille O’neal. These led to the trading of D’Antoni’s favorite Boris Diaw and crowd favorite Raja Bell to the Bobcats for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley in December. Coach Porter also loosened up the offense and it looked like they were winning again but losing 8 out of the final 13 games convinced management that it was time for him to go.

This could be great news for Phoenix Suns fans as Amar’e Stoudemire might not be traded after all. It also looks like they have a good relationship with coach Alvin Gentry as he has been with the Suns since 2004. Let’s just hope that Gentry learned a thing or two from D’Antoni’s run ‘n gun system as this will boost the production of all the Suns players except Shaquille O’neal.

If Amar’e stays, look for the Suns to go to him more and play Phoenix Suns basketball with all the running. Steve Nash’s career will be rejuvenated after it took a step back for half a season this year. Look for them to score more this second half and I’m pretty sure that fantasy owners of Suns players and Suns fans are all excited with this.

Mike D'Antoni image by holidaygolight via flickr.

Mike D’Antoni will be facing his old team for the first time tonight as he tries to lead his New York Knicks against the Phoenix Suns. Both teams have gone opposite directions this year as the Knicks are looking like a team finally making the playoffs after years of missing it while the Suns look like a borderline playoff team after years of dominance.

It would be interesting to see how Steve Nash will play with a different lineup from a year ago against his former coach, who’s system helped Nash win back to back MVP. (more…)