Amare Stoudemire an All-Star?

Forget Rookie of the Year. In Arizona Stephon Marbury wants rookie teammate Amare Stoudemire to be on a plane to Atlanta this February for the All-Star Weekend, and not as a participant in the Rookies-Sophmore game.

"He's been playing like an All-Star. If (Houston's) Yao Ming is going to make it, then Amare for sure would make it. That's not even close."

Stoudemire, one of many players to jump from High School to the NBA in recent years, is averaging 11.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per contest, good enough for 5th and 1st among rookies respectively. These numbers, however, do not reflect the impact he has made of late.

"With Amare playing like an All-Star, it's hard to beat us," Marbury said after the 20-year-old forward scored 19 points and snared 13 rebounds in a 103-84 Phoenix victory Sunday. "This was Amare's game."

Stoudemire, told of Marbury's remarks, said, "That's a pretty bold statement right there. But I think I'm doing just as well (as Yao)."

"Yao Ming just seems to get a lot more hype than I do, which is good. I'd rather not have that much hype and just do my job."

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Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets

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NBA mistakenly OK'd 3-team trade

Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News reports that the three team trade between Denver, Houston and the Sixers was approved by the NBA when it should not have been. The deal was approved on December 18th. But one of the players in the deal, Art Long, was not eligible to be traded until December 30th.

The league has decided it will not rescind the trade.

Under CBA rules, a newly signed player can not be traded until December 15th or three months after his signing date. Long was signed on September 30th, just before training camp opened. That means he was traded 12 days before he was eligible.

"After the trade was approved, it was discovered that under the league's trade rules, Art Long was 12 days shy of the waiting period required before he could be traded," said NBA spokesman Mark Broussard, who said the league sent all teams a letter of explanation. "After taking into account the effect rescinding the trade would have on the teams and players involved, and the fact that it would have been allowable 11 days later in any event, it was decided to let the trade stand."

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Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets

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Malone shows Yao how mail used to be delivered

The Rockets shot lights out Monday night. They shot so lights out -- 54 percent from the field, 100 percent from the foul line -- that the lights actually did go out for almost the last three minutes of the game. A storm-induced power surge caused the problem, we were told later.

This would not prove a good thing, though, for the Houston kids. In a resultant gloaming, the game's definitive power forward for the ages let loose with some thunder and lightning of his own. But, looking for a bright spot in the Compaq Center's semi-darkness, we'll conclude it was good for Yao Ming to see a vintage Karl Malone, to see him go off, scoring 31 points, for old time's sake. It's important for Yao's historical perspective, for his understanding of who's who and what's what in NBA lore.

The 20-year-old Eddie Griffin, a born-in-the-USA, city-ball graduate, has grown up watching Malone live up to the "Mailman" nickname he brought to the pros 18 years ago, delivering 35,200 points since he left backwoods Louisiana for Salt Lake City. But Yao, 22, needed to see it for himself, just so he would have a frame of reference.

Via Houston Chronicle

Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets

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