As a former member of the worst team in the NBA and quite possibly the worst team in the franchise history of the New York Knicks, you have to feel for Amar’e Stoudemire wanting to leave the Knicks and go to a team chasing a championship.
It seems like the honeymoon is over in Dallas as Stoudemire recently voiced his frustrations with his Dallas Mavericks teammates after the Mavericks were blown out at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers and their new all-time assist leader, LeBron James.
After the 33-point home loss to the Cavs, the Mavs fifth loss in its last seven games, Stoudemire voiced his frustrations.
Following from Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas.
“I came here to win, and we’re [4 ½] games out of being out of the playoffs, which is unacceptable,” Stoudemire said after the Cleveland Cavaliers cruised to a 127-94 win over the Mavs at the American Airlines Center. “This is something we can’t accept. We’ve got to find a way to refocus. We’ve got to key into the details of the game of basketball.
“We can’t cheat the game. We can’t screw around in games and practices and joke around all the time and figure we’re going to win games. This is the pros. It’s the highest level of basketball. We’ve got to act that way.”
Stoudemire didn’t have to come to Dallas. He absolutely could have stayed on the Knicks and stay ‘injured’ while the team coasted to a lottery pick and Amar’e Stoudemire could’ve got his entire salary for the year.
Instead Stoudemire and the Knicks agreed to a buyout, an agreement which had Stoudemire electing to leave $2.5 million on the table. Stoudemire has only been in Dallas for 11 games, averaging 11.4 points per game and 3.5 rebounds per game for Dallas in 17.5 minutes a game, but the team’s record during that time is just 5-6, not exactly fantastic in the heavily contested Western Conference.
It’s unclear if Stoudemire has created a spot for himself with the Mavericks as a veteran leader in the locker room with his 13 years of NBA experience. He might still be getting looked at as the ‘new guy’ with this team, so the effectiveness of this speech will be heavily looked at but you can’t deny the fact that Amar’e knows a thing or 2 about losing and I doubt he wants to return to that place again.
