Amare Stoudemire Isn’t Just Playing When It Comes to Art

My boi @robpruitt5000 ??. Missed you this trip for #ArtBasel. I’m sure I’ll see you in NY soon. ✌?️

A photo posted by (əˈ•mär•ray) Amar’e Stoudemire (@amareisreal) on Dec 7, 2015 at 10:45am PST

Bloomberg follow up on the Amar’e Stoudemire stories about his art ambitions and found something much more interesting:

“So many players ask me how to get involved. Just like purchasing a car, a home, the latest Lanvin sneakers, players want to buy art,” Stoudemire says. “I plan to guide them and ease them into being participants in the art world at any budget.”

So now Stoudemire is putting together a team to bring the sports stars closer to the art world:

“We’re going to educate the rest of the sports world how important it is to collect art, and how important it is to connect with emerging artists who are going to be great, but no one knows they’re going to be great yet,” Stoudemire says. He sees athletes purchasing art now at a reasonable price. “Five years from now, it becomes triple the amount, and now you have a gold mine on your hands.”

Currently, Stoudemire keeps a robust collection of postwar and contemporary art in his home, including works by Basquiat, Warhol, Retna, and Rob Pruitt.

Stoudemire has his own personal collection which he calls the Melech Collection but he also wants to create something that amounts to an art fund:

While he plans to always own that art and to pass it to his children, his next step will be to formalize a group of friends and advisers he relies on for advice and buying tips, he says. […] Once he has his advisers formalized, Stoudemire plans a website and platform that will help emerging artists sell art and find collectors—also under the name “Melech Collection.”

NBA Star Amare Stoudemire Has an Idea to Extend the Art Boom  (Bloomberg Business)