Damon Lamon Stoudamire (born September 3, 1973) is
an American professional basketball player,
currently with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. He
officially became a free agent at 10 pm on January
30, 2008 ET when he cleared waivers after a buyout
from the Grizzlies. The 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m), 171 lb
(78 kg/12.2 st) point guard was selected with the
7th overall pick by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995
NBA Draft and has won the 1995-96 NBA Rookie of the
Year Award. He has played professionally for the
Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis
Grizzlies,San Antonio Spurs and collegiately at the
University of Arizona. He is the cousin of former
Arizona Wildcats standout and current Atlanta Hawks
guard Salim Stoudamire.
Stoudamire was born to Willie Stoudamire and Liz
Washington in Portland, Oregon. He was the only
child, with three stepsisters. His parents never
married. Willie Stoudamire moved away to Milwaukee,
Wisconsin to work in a brewery when Damon was seven
years old. Stoudamire was raised by his mother Liz
and his grandmother Wanda Stoudamire-Matthews.
While Stoudamire was growing up, his uncles Charles
and Anthony Stoudamire got him into sports, mainly
basketball and American football. They acted as
fathers and personal coaches to Stoudamire in his
younger years. He grew up watching his favorite
player Nate Archibald and attempted to pattern his
game after his childhood hero. As he grew older, he
began to play basketball at Irving Park in the
Portland neighborhood Irvington and at the Matt
Dishman Community Center in Portland.
Stoudamire attended grade school at Holy Redeemer, a
Catholic school, and went on to attend Woodrow
Wilson High School. During his junior year in high
school, his grandmother Wanda died of cancer, and he
would later go on to tattoo Wanda's face and her
address on his left arm in remembrance. He was
accepted by the University of Oregon, but chose to
attend the University of Arizona instead.
