Damon Stoudamire
From Hoopedia
Damon Lamon Stoudamire (born September 3, 1973 in Portland, Oregon) is an American NBA basketball player, currently playing for the San Antonio Spurs. He was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the first round (seventh pick overall) of the 1995 NBA Draft. In college he played for the Arizona Wildcats. Damon is the cousin of former University of Arizona standout and current Atlanta Hawks guard Salim Stoudamire.
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Early Life
Damon Lamon Stoudamire was born to Willie Stoudamire and Liz Washington in Portland, Oregon Stoudamire was an only child, with three step sisters. His parents never married. Willie Stoudamire moved away to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to work in a brewery when Damon was seven years old. Stoudamire was raised by his mother Liz and his grandmother Wanda Stoudamire-Matthews. While Stoudamire was growing up his uncles Charles and Anthony Stoudamire got him into sports, namely basketball and football. They acted as fathers and personal coaches to Damon in his younger years. Damon grew up watching his favorite player Nate Archibald and attempted to pattern his game after his childhood hero. As Stoudamire grew older he began to play basketball at Irvington Park in Irvington, Portland, Oregon and at the Matt Dishman Community Center in Portland. Stoudamire attended grade school at a Catholic school, named Holy Redeemer, and went on to attend Woodrow Wilson High School. During his junior year in high school his grandmother, Wanda died of cancer. Stoudamire would later go on to tattoo Wanda's face and her address on his left arm in remembrance, during his NBA career. He was accepted to the University of Oregon but chose to attend the University of Arizona instead.
High School
Damon Stoudamire attended Wilson High School, playing for the Trojans in Portland, where he led his team to a 74-4 record and state championships in 1989 and another in 1991. Stoudamire averaged 26.1 points, 9.2 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game while playing for his school. He earned two Oregon Player of the Year Honors and one Converse High School All-American Honors during his senior year.
College
Stoudamire played point guard for the University of Arizona Wildcats and led his team to the 1994 NCAA Final Four. He played for legendary coach Lute Olson and was awarded First Team All-American, and was a finalist for College Player of the Year. Damon teamed up with Khalid Reeves his junior year to lead his team to the NCAA Final Four. During his senior year and earned he All-American honors for his 22.8 points per game. Damon also finished his college career becoming first on the Wildcats' all-time list in 3-pointers made (272), second in scoring (1,849 points), and fourth in assists (663), and was the only player in Arizona history to notch two 40-point games in his career. Damon scored his career high 45 points January 12, 1995 at Stanford University. Stoudamire was named a 1995 Wooden Award finalist after sharing the Pac-10 Player of the Year award with Ed O'Bannon.
NBA
Toronto Raptors
Stoudamire had a noteworthy rookie season with the Toronto Raptors averaging 9.3 assists and 19 points. He earned the nickname "Mighty Mouse" due to the fact he stands only 5'10" (1.77 m), and that he had a Mighty Mouse tattoo on his right arm going into his rookie season. Damon currently holds the record of having the third-highest assist average ever by a rookie, and rookie record setter for 3-pointers with 133, breaking the 3-point record previously held by Dennis Scott. Damon was ranked second in scoring among all rookies in his rookie season, and led all rookies in minutes played and assists. He received the Shick Rookie of the Month Award twice and unanimously made the Shick All Rookie First Team. That same year Stoudamire was also awarded the Rookie of the Year Award for the 1995-1996 season, receiving 76 of the 113 possible votes and the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Rookie Game. Stoudamire holds the record for being the second-lowest draft pick (seventh overall) to ever win the Rookie of the Year Award, the lowest being Mark Jackson (eighteenth overall). Damon is also known as the shortest player at 5'10" to ever win this award. He did not play the last 10 games of his rookie season due to an injury, Tendinitis in his left knee. The Raptors went 1-5 without him and finished 21-61 in his and the Raptors' rookie season. In the 1996-97 season Stoudamire was one of only four guards to rank among the NBA leaders in five different statistical categories, those including scoring (19th), assists (sixth), free throw percentage (28th) steals (29th) and minutes played (fourth). The other four (sic) players were Michael Jordan, Kevin Johnson, and Latrell Spreewell.
Portland Trail Blazers
In 1998 he was traded by the Raptors along with Walt Williams and Carlos Rogers to the Portland Trail Blazers, for Kenny Anderson, Alvin Williams, Gary Trent, two first-round draft choices, a second-round draft choice and an amount of money. As a member of the Trail Blazers, his stats have fallen somewhat from his career high. In 2002 the Blazers benched Stoudamire for most of the season. The coach went with Scottie Pippen and Bonzi Wells at the guard positions. However, in the playoffs Stoudamire received significant playing time.
On January 14, 2005, Stoudamire hit a career-high and Trail Blazers franchise record 54 points, which included 8 3-pointers, against the New Orleans Hornets. Same year, on April 15, 2005, he shot an NBA record 21 3-point attempts, making only 5 of them.
Stoudamire's contract with the Blazers expired in 2005, and it became widely known that the Trail Blazers, who were focusing on a "youth movement" and looking for players with good character, had no intention of re-signing Damon. This became abundantly clear in August 2005 when the team signed free agent guard Juan Dixon to a contract, and assigned him Stoudamire's uniform number (3). Stoudamire wanted the Blazers to work out a sign-and-trade deal whereby he would end up with the Houston Rockets. Since this would have required Portland to take one of Houston's overpaid players in return, and because the team at that time had a relatively high payroll, Portland management decided to go in another direction with players like Dixon and Steve Blake.
Memphis Grizzlies
On August 5, 2005, after Stoudamire had been in discussions with several teams, it was announced he had signed a 4-year deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he replaced Jason Williams, who left for the Miami Heat, as the starting point guard. In a December 30 game in his hometown of Portland, Stoudamire tore his right patellar tendon. He was carted off the court, and had successful surgery in Birmingham, Alabama the following week. He missed the rest of the 2005-06 season. Stoudamire returned for the beginning of the 2006-07 season, and has started all but 10 games, but he is playing over 8 fewer minutes per game compared to last year. He and veteran backup point guard Chucky Atkins have evenly split minutes at the point guard.
Suspension
His stint with the Trail Blazers was marred by several marijuana related incidents including one where, with then-starting power forward Rasheed Wallace, his yellow Hummer was pulled over on I-5 for speeding and driving under the influence of marijuana. After Stoudamire's third arrest for marijuana possession in 2003, he was fined $250,000 and was suspended for three months. Trail Blazers president Steve Patterson announced that he wanted to void Stoudamire's contract, but did not find a provision in the contract that would allow him to do so. Stoudamire completed a 90-day rehabilitation program and publicly swore off the use of marijuana. In addition, he made an agreement with The Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano to take an unannounced urine test during any point in the 2003-2004 season to prove his sobriety. Midway through the season, Canzano appeared in the team locker room and produced a specimen bottle which Stoudamire filled; an independent testing laboratory reported back the result that he was indeed "clean". The incident rehabilitated Stoudamire in the minds of many Portland fans, who had come to regard him as one of the "Jail Blazers". However, Stoudamire was widely criticized by the NBA Players Association for the drug test, who claimed that NBA players may only submit to such tests as prescribed by the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement. The fact that the test was voluntary, and not administered by the league or any of its teams, did not make Stoudamire immune to such criticism. Despite the criticism, no official action was taken by the union against Stoudamire for his participation in the test.
