Buddy Collings of the Orlando Sentinel reports: The off-again, on-again basketball career of Amare Stoudemire is on. Again.

Stoudemire, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center who is the consensus No.1 senior prospect in the nation, has been declared eligible to play for Cypress Creek by the Florida High School Activities Association.

His status has been up in the air since July, when the Orlando Sentinel reported that Stoudemire's mother, Carrie, had received cash last year from Nike basketball consultant George Raveling and was bailed out of jail in April by John Adkins, coach of the Nike-sponsored Tallahassee Wildcats travel team.

Stoudemire has not played high school basketball since his sophomore year at Mount Zion Christian of Durham, N.C.

RealGm note: For those of you that don't know, Amare Stoudemire is considered by many as the top high school senior in the country and is likely to be a high lottery selection in the 2002 NBA Draft.

Yao Ming is projected to be a top-five pick in next year's draft.  There is, of course, still the question of whether he will be allowed to leave China.  On the other hand, the U.S. wouldn't let his parents into the country last year, afraid they would seek immigration status.  Yao rolls his eyes and says, "My parents would not want to live in the United States."  Anyway, it's a slow-news day, so check this feature on Yao.

Glenn Rogers of the San Antonio Express News writes about those rookies who looked ready to play in the NBA.  Those who were a credit to the franchise were: Kwame Brown, Tony Parker, Jason Richardson, Troy Murphy, Gilbert Arenas, Joe Johnson, Kedrick Brown, and Shane Battier.  The list of rookies who struggled: Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, Eddie Griffin, and Joe Forte.