It should have raised a few eyebrows when Amare Stoudemire tweeted a couple days ago that he was headed to Israel to "learn about it." Sure, Stoudemire's free to do whatever he wants on his own time, but Israel? Seems kind of random.
Unless ... it wasn't so random after all. Apparently, Stoudemire just learned that his mom is Jewish.
According to an Army Radio report, Stoudemire plans to spend time in Israel learning Hebrew, having recently learned he has a Jewish mother.
(It's worth noting that this is Amare's mom).
According to Jewish law, if your mother is Jewish, then you, by definition are also Jewish. Therefore, if true, Amare Stoudemire is ... well, I don't even need to say it, because you know. As a fellow member of the tribe, let me be the first to welcome Amare into our little club. Jordan Farmar and Omri Casspi say hello.
But wait, it gets better.
Not content with him being a member of the tribe, Israeli newspaper Ha'Aretz (which is normally the least tabloid-y paper in the Israeli press) is pushing for Amare to join the Israeli national team.
News of Stoudemire's trip quickly had Israeli basketball fans buzzing with speculation that they might one day see him playing alongside another Jewish NBA star, Israel's Omri Caspi, on the national team.
So far there is no indication as to whether Stoudemire is here to stay - although for the moment, Israel seems to be getting along just fine without him, beating Great Britain 86-82 in Tueday's training game.
Well that pretty much answers the question right there. Why even bother trying to get Amare to play for your team when you can beat Great Britain in a training game without him?