Stoudemire trade rumors cloud fun for Phoenix fans

February 15, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

PHOENIX (AP) — For one weekend, basketball promised to be fun again in Phoenix.

The NBA’s best are in town for the All-Star game, bringing the spectacle of endless entertainment, lots of laughs and plenty of points.

Just like the Suns used to provide.

Now, with the hometown team mired in so much misery that its own All-Star starter was perhaps days away from a ticket out of town, it was up to Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James and the other high-scoring showmen to bring hoops happiness back to the Valley of the Sun.

“Right now, the dynamics with the Phoenix Suns, there is a lot of head-scratching going on right now,” said Doug Collins, a Phoenix resident who will be part of TNT’s coverage of the game tonight.

The Suns were championship contenders during most of coach Mike D’Antoni’s four full seasons, winning games and fans with their uptempo brand of offense. He’s gone now, and he might not be the only one by next week as the disappointing Suns look to start over while barely hanging on at the bottom of the playoff race.

Amare Stoudemire, scheduled to start for the Western Conference, is perhaps the biggest and most frequent name mentioned in trade talks ahead of next week’s deadline.

Bryant and James have dominated recent All-Star games, combining for the last three MVP awards. James said the first three quarters are for fun, but, “the fourth quarter, that’s when we all really start to play hard. The fourth quarter is buckle-down time.

“It’s fun to go out there and compete,” James said. “I love playing against the best in the world and on this stage, it’s the best 24 guys in the world. I kind of rise to that occasion.”

James has been the best scorer ever in All-Star play. His 27-point performance last year in the East’s 134-128 victory raised his average through four appearances to 24.3 points, the highest among players who have played in that many games. He was MVP of that game, two years after he won it for leading a huge East rally in Houston.

“He’s a special talent. There’s obviously All-Stars and they’re elite players, and there’s those guys that are even a step above that,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “And when you start talking about those guys, you’re talking about Kobe, and Tim [Duncan] and Michael [Jordan] and Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird, and ’Bron obviously fits in that category.”