He played collegiately at the University of Arizona, and professionally for the Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs.
They acted as fathers and personal coaches to Stoudamire in his younger years, as he grew up watching his favorite player, Nate Archibald, and attempted to pattern his game after his childhood hero.
As he grew older, Stoudamire began to play basketball at Irving Park in the Portland–Irvington neighborhood and at the Matt Dishman Community Center in Portland.
He also finished his college career first on the Wildcats' all-time list in three-pointers made (272), second in points (1,849), fourth in assists (663), and was the only player in Arizona history to have two 40-point games.
He holds the record for being the third-lowest draft pick (7th overall) to ever win the Rookie of the Year award, with the lowest being Malcolm Brogdon (36th in the second round.)
During the first round of the 1998 NBA Playoffs, on April 26, 1998, Stoudamire scored 17 points and recorded 14 assists during a Game 2 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
[6] On December 28, 2000, Stoudamire scored 32 points and hit the game-winning shot with 0.4 seconds left during a 103–102 win over the Utah Jazz.
This became abundantly clear in August 2005, when the team signed free agent guard Juan Dixon to a contract, and assigned him Stoudamire's uniform number (3).
On August 5, 2005, after Stoudamire had been in discussions with several teams, it was announced he signed a 4-year deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he replaced Jason Williams, who left for the Miami Heat, as the starting point guard.
He missed the rest of the 2005–06 season, returning for 2006–07, and ended up playing 62 games, of which he started 51 (evenly splitting point guard duties with veteran backup Chucky Atkins).
During the 2007–08 season, on NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad, he said that he was working hard with Mike Conley Jr., a 2007 draft pick by the Grizzlies, who, after Stoudamire had left, would play a major role as a point guard.
On January 26, 2008, the Grizzlies reached a tentative contractual buyout agreement with Stoudamire,[8] with the San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors registering strong interest in signing him.
[10][11] The Celtics initially showed strong interest in Stoudamire but since set their sights on the Los Angeles Clippers' Sam Cassell.
In March 2016, Stoudamire left Memphis to take over the head coaching position for the Pacific Tigers men's basketball team.
[23] Stoudamire's stint with the Portland Trail Blazers was marred by several marijuana-related incidents, including one during the 2002–03 season where, with then-starting power forward Rasheed Wallace, his yellow Hummer was pulled over on Interstate 5 for speeding and driving under the influence of marijuana.
In addition, he made an agreement with The Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano to take an unannounced urine test during any point of the 2003–04 season to prove his sobriety.
Midway through the season, Canzano appeared in the team locker room and produced a specimen bottle which Stoudamire filled.
In an interview on The Post Game Podcast after retiring, Stoudamire voiced his frustration with how the city received the team and the incident, saying he and his teammates "Were just kids" when it happened.