Diameter of Binary Tree - Better Design

Question

I have written a code for finding diameter of Binary Tree. Need suggestions for the following:

1. Can I do this without using static variable at class level?

Answer 1

There is a minimal O(n) answer compared to the accepted one.

int DiameterTree(BinaryTreeNode root, int diameter) {
    int left, right;
    if (!root) return 0;

    left  = DiameterTree(root.getLeft(), diameter);
    right = DiameterTree(root.getRight(), diameter);
    if (left + right > diameter) diameter = left + right;

    return Math.max(left, right) + 1;
}

Assume diameter is a static variable in class.