Amar’e Stoudemire defends punching fire extinguisher: I’m a passionate player

When Amar’e Stoudemire suffered an injury by punching a fire extinguisher during the NBA playoffs, most of us reacted by laughing at his expense. Stoudemire is an NBA superstar who had a lapse in judgment when his team needed him the most, so in many ways he deserved the criticism. However, he says some of the details from the incident are inaccurate. He didn’t actually punch the thing, you dummies.

“It wasn’t a punch at all, actually,” Stoudemire said during an interview with Artrell and Andy on FOX Sports Radio. “It was more like a slap against the wall, but I caught the edge of the fire extinguisher. Some people think I balled my fist up and punched through a glass fire extinguisher, which is totally opposite of the truth. It was more like a smack against the wall, kind of a backhand or a reach back slap across the wall and caught the edge of the fire extinguisher.”

Well in that case — does it really matter? A glance at the gruesome picture Amar’e tweeted of his stitched up hand would seem to indicate he is telling the truth. It was more of an open-handed slap than a punch, but either way it was a bonehead move. Stoudemire also wants everyone to know that the injury was not caused by frustration.

“I think a lot of people confused my passion with frustration,” he explained. “I’m such a passionate player. I want to win so bad to where sometimes I want to win, so I bring my passion and it gets confused with frustration.”

Again, does it matter? We did feel sorry for Amar’e after seeing the injury and knowing that it cost him during the playoffs, but a simple “it was dumb of me” would have sufficed when the hosts asked him about the incident. The fact that it was a slap instead of a punch and done out of passion and not frustration is not going to stop people from wearing this shirt.

Thanks to Sports Radio Interviews for transcribing the interview
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE