Amar’e Stoudemire has had some interesting quotes in the past 24 hours. First, Stoudemire said that he believed Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and himself are the Knicks future Big 3. Which, really Amar’e?
Now, Stoudemire is claiming that the idea of bringing Melo to the Knicks was all his, and owner James Dolan ran with it. No, seriously. USA Today has the details.
“I mentioned a few players to Mr. Dolan who would be fun to play with, and Melo was one of them,” Stoudemire said. “Then we said, “Let’s make the move and try to trade for Melo.” That’s how things first started with the Knicks going after Carmelo Anthony. That was a decision Dolan pretty much made with helping myself.”
This seems to be a bit of revisionist history from Amar’e. The Knicks were already looking towards the 2011 off-season when they would have an opportunity to sign Melo, and instead chose to trade for him before he hit the market.
In hindsight, the Knicks gutting their assets to get Melo a few months early worked out about as well as the Stoudemire/Anthony pairing has. So maybe Amar’e shouldn’t be so quick to try taking credit for the move.
Either way, this pairing seems to be coming to an end one way or another. All that remains to be seen is whether that happens with Melo leaving via free agency or Amar’e not being re-signed by the Knicks.
