Superstars can make garbage teams average, average teams good, good teams great and great teams champions.
What we are learning is Amar’e Stoudemire is not a superstar.
If someone offered me 100 million I would take it too, so I am not knocking him accepting the contract, but the Knicks had to know if he was the only major free agent they signed it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
Amar’e is a complementary star and without Steve Nash serving him up easy layups he is having a hard time adjusting as THE MAN.
I will give Stoudemire credit for voicing his frustrations because he could easily JaMarcus Shrug the whole situation:
“I don’t understand why we’re not playing with the urgency,” Stoudemire said. “I’m not used to that. We’re not playing like we’re on a four-game losing streak, now five. It almost seems as if it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s a foreign land for me right now,” Stoudemire added.
“I can’t keep saying the same things, that we have to step it up,” Stoudemire added. “I keep saying it and we’re having no reaction. I’m one of the leaders and trying to instill a sense of urgency we have to play with. We didn’t win four games in a row. We lost four games in a row. We’re not playing like we want it. We’re not digging out loose balls, diving on the floor.”
Until the Knicks add an additional player like a Carmelo Anthony or Chris Paul, Amar’e might just have to get use to losing. He is correct as one of the leaders of the team he has to change the culture of losing, but right now he is not doing a very good job on or off the court.