MySports Today

Good timing or bad timing?

After numerous trade rumors swirled surrounding Phoenix Suns forward Amare Stoudemire last week, the Phoenix Suns and GM Steve Kerr elected not to trade the NBA all-star stud. The non-move looked like a good one for the Suns as he poured in 42 points in Phoenix’s 142-129 blowout victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. But in that game, a blow to the head may have aggravated an existing injury to Stoudemire’s right eye that caused the partial detachment of his retina. Stoudemire underwent surgery on Friday and he cannot resume physical activities for 8 weeks. Stoudemire originally injured the eye in training camp when he suffered a partially torn iris, with no damage to the retina. Stoudemire and the Suns had been monitoring the condition all season long with monthly eye doctor visits, but it appears something that happened during Wednesday’s game made the injury even worse.

The Suns are on the outside looking in right now. At 31-23, the Suns are the 9th seed in the Western Conference. They already traded Boris Diaw and Raja Bell, so the loss of Stoudemire stings even more. It will be interesting to see if the Suns will be able to catch the teams ahead of them in the playoff race – Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Hornets , Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers – all within 3 games of the Suns.

Other NBA teams clearly averted disaster by not being able to complete a deal for Stoudemire – those teams include the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors. Just goes to show you how sometimes the best trade is the trade you don’t make.