PHOENIX - Everyone has a favorite Amare Stoudemire story these days.

Phoenix Suns coach Frank Johnson has his.

It happened when Stoudemire worked out for the Suns last year before the NBA draft. The Suns, picking ninth, had brought in a number of prospects and ran a drill to test their vertical leaps. Stoudemire jumped higher - much higher - than anyone else on the floor. Mouths opened in unison.

"This might have been his first workout," Johnson recalled recently. "He goes up with two hands. Sometimes when you go up with two hands you lose [height]. All I could think of was rebounds above the rim, rebounds that we always struggled to get. I said, 'Maybe we could get lucky,' and we did."

Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown has his tale about seeing the 6-foot-10, 245-pound forward play for the first time.

It happened when Brown went with John Calipari last year to watch Stoudemire play in an Amateur Athletic Union basketball tournament in Philadelphia. Calipari, his former 76ers assistant, had just finished his first season as basketball coach at the University of Memphis.

Stoudemire, then a high school senior in Orlando, Fla., had orally committed to play at Memphis.

"The first trip he went down the court, I said to John, 'He's never going to play for you. He's going to be the first pick in the draft,' " Brown said before a game here last week against the Suns. "We probably should have traded up to get him."

Those stories are stacking up as Stoudemire continues to be the most impressive rookie in the league aside from Houston's Yao Ming, the 7-5 Chinese center who was picked first in the 2002 draft. With Stoudemire, the only high school player taken, it's becoming hard to distinguish fact from fiction.

Did Stoudemire really score 38 points on Kevin Garnett, the All-NBA forward from the Minnesota Timberwolves, last month? Did he really knock out two of Paul Pierce's teeth when the Boston Celtics All-Star collided with Stoudemire?

"To the opposing team, it's shocking to see what he's doing," said veteran Suns guard Penny Hardaway. "Before they can recover or make a move, he's already dunked the ball. Not only his athleticism, his strength is what's getting him through. He's a lot stronger than people give him credit for."

'I knew I was ready'

At least seven NBA teams might feel now as if they missed on Stoudemire. No player who made the jump directly from high school to the NBA - not Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady or Garnett - has done so as dramatically as Stoudemire has with the Suns.

Stoudemire, 20, is not shocked at what he has accomplished.

"I knew I was ready," said Stoudemire, sitting in the team's spacious locker room at America West Arena. "I felt that I was mentally ready and physically ready. Maybe growing up the way I did, me growing up faster than the normal 16- or 17-year-old, allowed me to be mentally ready for the league."

Since moving into the starting lineup after veteran forward Tom Gugliotta was sidelined with a foot injury 10 games into the season, Stoudemire has gone from being a project for the Suns to a problem child for the rest of the league.

Stoudemire is averaging 12.5 points and 9.1 rebounds for the season, fifth best among rookies in scoring and first in rebounding, but in the past month his game has gone through another growth spurt. He has averaged close to 15 points and 10 rebounds since becoming a starter. On Friday, he had 21 rebounds against the Memphis Grizzlies, setting a Suns' rookie record.

"I see a little growth since the season began, but a lot of things are natural," Stoudemire said. "I'm just getting comfortable out there, and that allows me to play."

It was his performance against Garnett in a Dec. 30 road loss that must have made those who had the opportunity to select Stoudemire start to second-guess themselves.

With what is now becoming a typical array of thundering one-handed dunks and various spin moves around the basket, Stoudemire made 16 of 24 shots. His 38 points were the most ever by an NBA rookie right out of high school. He also had 14 rebounds and blocked two shots.

"To me, it was just another game," Stoudemire said. "I didn't go out with a one-on-one thing in my mind. I'm just going out trying to win the game. It's just that it happened to be that I had a pretty good night."

Stoudemire has had a bunch of them so far this season, helping the Suns become one of the surprise teams in the league. Even more than Yao, Stoudemire was considered a rather large risk coming into the season.

Most shied away from Stoudemire after three of the top picks from 2001 - No. 1 choice Kwame Brown of the Washington Wizards, as well as Nos. 2 and 4 selections Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry of the Chicago Bulls - had problems adjusting to the NBA game as rookies out of high school.

Rising above past

But there were also concerns about Stoudemire's background.

Stoudemire had gone to six high schools, finishing at Cypress Creek in Orlando, Fla., and often had academic issues from moving around so much. His mother, Carrie, has been in and out of jail for most of her adult life. One of his brothers is in prison.

"Changing schools, being in so many different environments, I kind of had to adapt to every environment," said Stoudemire, who often had to live with one coach's family or another because of his tumultuous situation at home. "I used to hang around older guys. I kind of had to grow up [fast]."

And he had to avoid the troubles to which family and friends succumbed.

"There's a lot of pride in that," he said. "That tells you that I have a straight head on my shoulders. A lot of people just fade away when they follow their friends doing negative stuff. If people think you're weird because you're taking care of your business, so be it."

Stoudemire is certainly strange in this regard: His play so far this season has been in stark contrast to the disappointing play of many of the league's rookies, most notably No. 3 pick Mike Dunleavy Jr. of the Golden State Warriors and No. 5 pick Nikoloz Tskitishvili of the Denver Nuggets.

Though still raw when it comes to his post-up game as well as lacking little more than an occasional mid-range jump shot, Stoudemire gets by on a breathtaking combination of strength and quickness. He has impressed his teammates with his willingness to work and his ability to learn.

"I think he's just being aggressive. He's just wanting to get his respect by playing hard every game," Hardaway said. "I think that's what he understands."

Bryant, who joined the Lakers out of high school but came off the bench during his rookie year, found a seat on the Stoudemire bandwagon after watching him help the Suns beat the struggling three-time defending world champions in Phoenix on Jan. 4.

"He's explosive, he plays hard, he's strong," Bryant said. "He's going to be a very, very good player. He has a lot of excellent coaches here who can work with him individually. He's in good hands."

Asked what advice he might give Stoudemire, Bryant said, "Just have a good time."

Frank Johnson has told his prized rookie something else.

"We told him, 'Through it all, just stay humble,' " Johnson said. "I think he's a very well-rounded kid. All he wants to do is win. Sometimes he'll lose focus and he wants to take care of a lot of other things. He's still a kid. I try to keep him in his routine."

Courting friendships

If anything, the most difficult adjustment for Stoudemire has come away from the court.

"You've got to take care of your business," said Stoudemire, whose support system includes his mother, brother Marwan, 14, and former Sun Mark West, now the team's assistant general manager. "Going grocery shopping, things like that, an NBA player needs to do so he can feel normal."

In the gym and on the road, Stoudemire is everyone's big little brother. Veteran center Scott Williams took the lessons he was taught as a rookie by players like Michael Jordan and Bill Cartwright with the world champion Chicago Bulls and applied them to Stoudemire.

"I thought I could teach him how to become a professional in this league," said Williams, who requested the dressing stall next to Stoudemire. "If Frank played me and him on the floor at the same time, the better rapport we had off the court, the better rapport we'd have on it."

Stoudemire said he doesn't go out with a boulder on his shoulder every night trying to stick it to those who didn't draft him. Not that he hasn't heard the whispers that seem to follow him to each new stop, or when he returns for a second visit.

"I think I opened their eyes a little bit," he said. "I came out, playing hard, playing so good so soon. I don't think everyone believed I could do as good as I'm doing."

The stories keep mounting. Stoudemire even has a favorite about himself. It happened a long time ago, when he was in the sixth grade. At 6-1, Stoudemire had yet to dunk a basketball. Then one day ...

"I was in the gym all alone and I dunked," Stoudemire recalled. "I went to tell my friends, and they didn't believe me. It took me two weeks before I dunked again."

Stoudemire chuckled at the memory.

"They believe me now," he said.