Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Amar’e Stoudemire to get Shabbat rest from coaching Brooklyn Nets

Though Amar’e Stoudemire is now part of the coaching staff of the Brooklyn Nets, you won’t see him on the sidelines at the team’s Friday night or Saturday games.

That’s because the NBA team has given the 38-year-old Stoudemire, a recent convert to Judaism, time off from Friday night to Saturday night so that he may observe Shabbat.

Stoudemire revealed the news in an Instagram story.

Fans had wondered how Stoudemire, whose conversion to Judaism was highly publicized, would balance his responsibilities to both the team and his faith.

Before coming to the Nets, Stoudemire had played in Israel for both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem. While in the Holy Land, he studied for his conversion, which he completed in August of 2020, taking on the Biblical name Jehoshaphat.

During his career in the NBA, Stoudemire played for the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks and the Dallas Mavericks.

With 72 games scheduled for the NBA’s 2020-2021 season, giving Stoudemire off for the 25 hours of shabbat is not a minor concession. The Nets already have several upcoming games scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays, and that’s not including weekends that may be used for practicing or traveling.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.