Wtf! Knicks Star Amar'e Stoudemire Applies For Israeli Citizenship

Knicks star Amar’e Stoudemire has taken one step closer to the Promised Land.

The goggle-wearing power forward with gimpy knees and supposed Hebrew roots has applied for Israeli citizenship.

“He applied, and he’s getting there now,” Stoudemire’s agent Happy Walters told New York Magazine.

Stoudemire, 30, put in the paperwork while he was in the Jewish state for the annual Maccabiah Games, where he served as the assistant coach of the Canadian basketball squad.

Those ended earlier this week, but Stoudemire has more than religious reasons for forging closer ties with Israel.

In July, Stoudemire announced he had become a part owner in the Israeli basketball club Hapoel Jerusalem.

Stoudemire, who was signed by the Knicks in 2010 to a nearly $100 million five-year contract, wasn’t raised Jewish.

But he’s been flirting with the religion ever since he moved to New York and began telling people his wayward mother, Carrie, had Jewish ties.

In interviews, Stoudemire has stated that he has "no formal religion," although he practices certain Jewish rituals because “we are all Jewish. It's the original culture.”

Also, Stoudemire donned a yarmulke and a prayer shawl when he and Alexis Welch tied the knot last year.

“I’m not a religious person, I’m more of a spiritual person,” he recently told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “So I follow the rules of the Bible that coordinate with and connect with the Hebrew culture.”

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