Jerry Stackhouse: Proving Age Is Just A Number?

Jerry Stackhouse has arguably seen a real resurgence in his career with the Brooklyn Nets. Jerry Stackhouse was a guy who even came out of retirement to return to the NBA with the Atlanta Hawks. Most observers viewed as a veteran presence who could educate the young players about the importance of the game. Many people assumed that Stackhouse’s days of being a top scoring option were over, but the truth of the matter is that Stackhouse has had some nights where he has scored over twenty points or at least seventeen points for the Brooklyn Nets this season.

Some people may not think that Stackhouse really fulfilled his potential when he came out of North Carolina, but the truth of the matter is that Stackhouse was the top scorer on the Detroit Pistons for a number of years and some of the Jordan questions and comparisons that you hear about with Kobe Bryant were once directed at Jerry Stackhouse.

Avery Johnson, the coach of the Brooklyn Nets has a lot of respect for veteran players that some teams had simply given up on, Johnson was a journeyman in the NBA himself until he landed on the roster of the San Antonio Spurs. Stackhouse has been able to deal with the process of being on both winning and losing squads, there are a lot of people out there who start to worry about their minutes when you first get into the league, but then you come to realize that the process is more about winning championships than anything else.

There are a number of people out there who may really like the idea of coming out of retirement and showing the younger guys how to play. Rasheed Wallace, who was a came out of retirement was a teammate of Jerry Stackhouse’s at the University of North Carolina. Maybe these two looked around the league and did not see enough of their fellow Tar Heels dominating the league anymore.

The hope is that Stackhouse and players like him will give other players the confidence they need to believe that they can still contribute on the court once they get in their mid to late thirties. Allen Iverson could still be in the NBA as well, but Iverson expected to still get the same number of shots that he did in the past. Stackhouse can be a good compliment when Deron Williams is not on the floor and the Nets are looking for some quick scoring.