Former Suns star Amar’e Stoudemire was one of Steve Nash’s first hires back in 2020, but after two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, Stoudemire has decided not to return as a player development assistant.
Stoudemire broke the news publicly on ESPN, and provided commentary on what went wrong in Brooklyn this past season. In a video on Instagram, Stoudemire detailed the reason he’s leaving the organization, which has to do with his religious observance of Shabbat.
“I spoke with Steve Nash before I went on ESPN. We had an easy, mutual conversation. I spoke about me not being able to grow in the coaching space because I don’t work on Shabbat. Not working on Friday night and Saturdays is difficult for anyone to grow in the coaching space because coaching is such a grind an it requires you to be there full-time.
And so for me, I wasn’t able to grow in that space, so I did not want to continue coaching. And on the flip side, the Nets organization want people who can be there full-time, and I totally understand that.”