Damon Stoudamire

Early life

Stoudamire was born to Willie Stoudamire and Liz Washington in Portland, Oregon; he was the only child, with three stepsisters; 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 involved in sports, mainly basketball and football. They acted as fathers and personal coaches to Stoudamire in his younger years, as he grew up watching his favorite player, Nate Archibald, and attempted to pattern his game after his childhood hero. As he grew older, Damon began to play basketball at Irving Park in the Portland–Irvington neighborhood and at the Matt Dishman Community Center in Portland.

Stoudamire attended Holy Redeemer grade school (a Catholic school) and Harriet Tubman Middle School, then attended Woodrow Wilson High School. During his junior year in high school, his grandmother Wanda died of cancer. He would later tattoo Wanda's face and her address on his left arm in remembrance. He was accepted to attend and play basketball at the University of Oregon, but chose to attend the University of Arizona instead.

High school career

Stoudamire attended Woodrow Wilson High School, playing there for the Trojans, where he led his team to a 74–4 record and state championships in 1989 and 1991. He 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 and one Converse High School All-American awards during his senior year.

College career

Stoudamire played point guard for the Arizona Wildcats and legendary coach, Lute Olson. He was a first-team All-American and finalist for College Player of the Year. He teamed with Khalid Reeves his junior year to lead the team to the Final Four. During his senior year he earned the All-American honors for his 22.8 points per game. He also finished his college career first on the Wildcats' all-time list in three-pointers made (272), second in points (1,849), fourth in assists (663), and was the only player in Arizona history to have two 40-point games. Stoudamire scored his career-high 45 points at Stanford University on January 14, 1995. He was named a 1995 Wooden Award finalist after sharing the Pac-10 Player of the Year award with Ed O'Bannon.

Toronto Raptors

Stoudamire had a noteworthy rookie season with the Toronto Raptors, being the team's first ever draft pick, and averaging 9.3 assists and 19 points per game. He earned the nickname "Mighty Mouse" because he stands only 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m), and that he had a Mighty Mouse tattoo on his right arm going into his rookie season. He set the record for three-point field goals made by a rookie with 133 breaking the record at the time held by Dennis Scott. This record has been broken several times over since Stoudamire's 133 mark. It is currently held by Damian Lillard, who made 185 threes in his rookie season. Stoudamire is third in assist average by a rookie. He ranked second in scoring among all rookies in 1995–96, and led all rookies in minutes played and assists. He received the Schick Rookie of the Month award twice and unanimously made the Schick All Rookie First Team, and eventually won the Rookie of the Year award, receiving 76 of the possible 113 votes, and the MVP award of the Rookie All-Star Game. He holds the record for being the third-lowest draft pick (7th overall) to ever win the Rookie of the Year award, with the lowest being Malcolm Brogdon (36th in the second round.) He is also known as the shortest player to ever win this award. He did not play the last 10 games of his rookie season due to tendinitis in his left knee. The Raptors finished that year and his rookie season with 21 wins and 61 losses.

Stoudamire previously held the record for most triple doubles with the Toronto Raptors with 3 triple doubles, a record that stood until 2014, when it was broken by Kyle Lowry.

Portland Trail Blazers

On February 13, 1998, he was traded by the Raptors along with Walt Williams and Carlos Rogers to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Kenny Anderson, Alvin Williams, Gary Trent, two first-round draft picks, a second-round draft pick and cash considerations. As a member of the Blazers, his stats fell somewhat from his career highs. In the 2001–02 season, the Blazers benched Stoudamire for most of the time. The new head coach, Maurice Cheeks, went with Scottie Pippen and Bonzi Wells instead at the guard positions. However, Stoudamire received significant playing time in the playoffs that season.

On January 14, 2005, Stoudamire hit a career-high and Blazers franchise record 54 points, which included 8 3-pointers, against the New Orleans Hornets. The same season, on April 15, he shot an NBA record 21 3-point attempts, making only 5 of them.

Stoudamire's contract with the Blazers expired at the end of the 2004–05 season, and it became widely known that the Blazers, who were focusing on youth movement and looking for players with good character, had no intention of re-signing him. 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, but since this would have required Portland to take one of Houston's overpaid players in return and the team, at that time, had a relatively high payroll, Portland management decided to go in another direction with players like Travis Outlaw and Sebastian Telfair.

Memphis Grizzlies

On August 5, 2005, after Stoudamire had been in discussions with several teams, it was announced he 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. On December 30, 2005, he tore his right patellar tendon, coincidentally in his hometown of Portland. 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, returning for 2006–07, and ended up playing 62 games, of which he started 51 (evenly splitting point guard duties with veteran backup Chucky Atkins).

During the 2007–08 season, on NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad, he said that he was working hard with Mike Conley, Jr., a 2007 draft pick by the Grizzlies, who, after Stoudamire had left, would play a major role as a point guard. When Conley returned from an injury, Grizzlies head coach Marc Iavaroni placed Stoudamire on the inactive list and used inexperienced rookie Mike Conley as the starting point guard, causing Stoudamire to look for a trade or a buyout. On January 26, 2008, the Grizzlies reached a tentative contractual buyout agreement with Stoudamire, with the San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors registering strong interest in signing him. On January 28, the buyout was completed and Stoudamire was placed on waivers. The Celtics initially showed strong interest in Stoudamire but since set their sights on the LA Clippers' Sam Cassell. According to Stoudamire's agent, Stoudamire was to sign with the Spurs.

San Antonio Spurs

On February 3, 2008, Stoudamire signed a contract with the San Antonio Spurs. He briefly started for the Spurs while Tony Parker was injured, but then was relegated to spot duty throughout the rest of the season and the playoffs.

Houston Rockets

Stoudamire considered going to camp with the Houston Rockets, but he did not attend training camp.

Coaching

In December 2008, Stoudamire accepted a coaching position as director of player development for the guard-heavy Rice University Owls squad under head coach Ben Braun.

In February 2009, Stoudamire joined the coaching staff of the Grizzlies, along with Henry Bibby.

In May 2011, Stoudamire joined the coaching staff of the University of Memphis Tigers men's basketball team, where his coaching and recruiting contributions were noted with enthusiasm during the '11-'12 season.

In May 2013, Stoudamire left Memphis to join the coaching staff of the Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team.

In May 2015, Stoudamire left Arizona to rejoin the coaching staff of the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team.

In March 2016, Stoudamire left Memphis to take over the head coaching position for the Pacific Tigers men's basketball team.

Marijuana possession

His stint with the Portland Trail Blazers was marred by several marijuana related incidents including one during the 2002–03 season 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. In July 2003, after his third arrest for marijuana possession, he was fined $250,000 and was suspended by the team for three months. 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. In addition, he made an agreement with The Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano to take an unannounced urine test during any point of the 2003–04 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 (CBA). 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.