From NY Post:
Stoudemire is a six-time All-Star and this marks the first time he has been healthy and missed the event since 2004. But this has hardly been an All-Star season for Stoudemire.
Stoudemire believes he sacrificed for the better good of the Knicks after Carmelo Anthony arrived last season and has blown his chance this season.
“No worries,’’ said Stoudemire late Thursday night in Miami after the Knicks entered the All-Star break following their loss to the Heat. “I’ve spent a year where I’ve pretty much had to sacrifice a lot of my game. Whatever it takes to win. That’s the ultimate goal. If it’s sacrificing the All-Star Game for the betterment of the team, it’s how it goes sometimes.’’
Look, I’ll get on STAT for turning the ball over. I’ll curse him out for playing awful defense and reclaiming the “doorman” role that made David Lee famous inside the orange paint. But I will never say anything negative about his demeanor and unselfish attitude that he’s brought to the table, seemingly since Day 1 last year.
Me being the biggest STAT jockrider around, I’ll be the first person to say that he’s played like complete horseshit this season. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Even before the passing of his brother, since Christmas the dude hasn’t looked like the same dominant force he was last year. I don’t know if it’s the extra 20 lbs of “muscle” that he added this offseason. I don’t know if it’s the fact that he hasn’t fully recovered from the back injury he suffered in the playoffs last year. Perhaps the half-life on his fragile, uninsured knees is a lot smaller than we originally thought.
But even if this is the Amar’e we’ll have for the next three seasons, the Amar’e-Light…Amar’e Zero. Whatever you want to call him. Even if that’s the case, the fact that the guy has transformed himself from an immature high schooler turned phenom into an unselfish veteran leader, willing to do anything possible in order to lift that Larry O’Brien trophy, says a lot about this guy.
Obviously I want the Knicks to win a championship. What Knick fan doesn’t? Since he walked in the door Day 1 and declared “The Knicks are back!” he won my life-long affection. Amar’e had me at hello.
But more importantly, perhaps more than any player that’s ever played for any of my beloved teams, I want the Knicks to win a championship WITH Amar’e on board. With him hoisting the trophy on the Garden floor, in front of the fan base and city whose challenge he embraced. With real tears streaming down his cheek, not tattooed ones. I want him, not Carmelo, not Tyson, not Jeremy Lin, to be the one that does it for us. That brings championship glory to a franchise that has been starved since 1973.
Amar’e Stoudemire started all this. Without him, there is no Carmelo. There is no Tyson. And fuck it, there’s probably no Lin either. Amar’e started it, and as much as me (as well as an entire fan base) has harped on him for his dissimilatory play thus far in this congested, compressed season, I want him to finish it.
