Amar’e Stoudemire, Bulldozer

Amar’e Stoudemire couldn’t hack it anymore in the NBA, so he retired and moved from New York to Jerusalem, where he’s been hobnobbing with Jeremy Piven when he’s in town for a bar mitvah, and otherwise, in very unretired fashion, playing basketball for Hapoel Jerusalem, a team he co-owns. He’s averaging a ho-hum 9.2 points and 7.2 boards per game from a 34-year old frame that already has a lot of mileage on it. I don’t pay much attention to professional Israeli basketball, but I imagine in Amar’e, Hapoel was hoping to lure crowds by having a big man block and dunk and maybe make some elbow jumpers from time to time. He’s doing that, it appears, and also taking his anger out on men half his size. Check out this cheap shot, spotted by Deadspin, from a game over the weekend.

In related news, Amar’e’s 12-year-old son Deuce, has been temporarily barred from playing youth basketball in the country because he’s not a citizen, which is bogus, but that’s the lay of the land. It appears, according to JTA, that they may make an exception, however.