Amare Stoudemire Criticizes Teammates

[VC15]

By Mike Prada:

The New Yok Knicks lost their fifth straight game Sunday against the Houston Rockets, and afterwards, Amare Stoudemire teed off on his teammates' lack of effort.

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Nov 15, 2010 - Remember all that optimism in New York this summer? Hell, remember all that optimism in New York a week and a half ago? It's mostly evaporated as the Knicks face the cold reality that they aren't a very good team. On Sunday night, the Knicks fell 104-96 to a Houston Rockets team missing star center Yao Ming and starting point guard Aaron Brooks due to injury.

It was the Knicks' fifth straight loss, and the competition hasn't been all that fierce (Philadelphia at home, at Milwaukee, Golden State at home, at Minnesota and Houston at home). Afterwards, Amare Stoudemire had some choice words for his team's effort. Via Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times.

"I'm not sure if it's the fact maybe a winning mentality has never been here. I'm just not used to it. I'm used to winning. I'm used to talking about winning and having that confidence toward winning. You just can't have guys complacent and comfortable with losing."

[...]

"I don't understand why we're not playing with the urgency. I'm not used to that. We're not playing like we're on a four-game losing streak, now five. We don't have that sense of urgency. It's almost as if it doesn't matter."

Stoudemire hasn't had a losing season in six years, and in five of those years, his Phoenix Suns won at least 50 games. So, quite literally, he isn't used to it. Of course, he should have known that it would be a bit of a bumpy ride when he signed on to play in New York.

Stoudemire had 25 points in the game, but his teammates didn't really come through to help him. Guards Raymond Felton and Toney Douglas shot a combined 7-27 from the field and had just seven assists. As SB Nation's Knicks blog Posting and Toasting notes, the Rockets were able to bottle up Stoudemire without having his teammates make them pay.

Amar'e Stoudemire's isolation game was alive and well in the first quarter, but the Rockets quickly switched to the "everybody guard Amar'e" strategy we've seen other teams utilize. As in previous games, it worked to perfection. Stoudemire struggled for the rest of the night while no other Knick could punish Houston for sagging into the middle.

The Knicks are now 3-7, and a four-game road trip out West begins Tuesday in Denver. If they do not turn it around quickly, the season could get out of hand in a hurry.

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2010/11/15/1815084/rockets-vs-knicks-score-recap-amare-stoudemire-losing-streak

Sounds like all is not well at "The Mecca of Basketball"

 

[Oiler35]

Should have never left Phoenix.

 

[Mooche]

Going to be interesting to see how badly this gets blown up..

 

[MR.ballin]

Should have never left Phoenix.

Definitely I would reject 20 million dollars a year also...

 

[Oiler35]

Defiantly I would reject 20 million dollars a year also...

They overpaid him to hell, yeah, but he at least had some solid chemistry with Steve Nash in Phoenix, who does he have in New York?

 

[$tunna]

Dag.. To think if NY would've just chose BJ in the draft their team now could be scary.

 

[MR.ballin]

They overpaid him to hell, yeah, but he at least had some solid chemistry with Steve Nash in Phoenix, who does he have in New York?

Wait.. so he shouldn't leave Phoenix cause he had good chemistry with Nash? lol. You'r basically saying that he should of just stayed with the Suns because he had a player that can feed him the ball always. What's that going to do? Bring a championship?

 

[Oiler35]

Wait.. so he shouldn't leave Phoenix cause he had good chemistry with Nash? lol. You'r basically saying that he should of just stayed with the Suns because he had a player that can feed him the ball always. What's that going to do? Bring a championship?

Because he had teammates that actually tried, and he was apart of a contending basketball team every year. What's he doing this year? Hating the team 10 games in?

 

[MR.ballin]

Because he had teammates that actually tried, and he was apart of a contending basketball team every year. What's he doing this year? Hating the team 10 games in?

Obviously because he's not used to losing. It's only been 10 games. You have to give time for the teams to adjust.

 

[cruzg24]

We really need to start picking it up. I think we should just let Danilo light it up and be the wingman to Amare. I think in that respect Danilo can develop into the player he can be. Toney is way too inconsistent and Raymond shouldnt be a primary scoring option because thats not what we need out of our PG position.

 

[dez]

Snine

You sound crazy

Teammates that actually tried lol

 

[dez]

And if you really read the article you'd realize he isnt blaming or criticizing his teammates, he's saying they need to learn how to win plain and simple.

sg your assumption that our players dont "try" or "care" is ridiculous almost to the point where its hilarious, those players who've have that attitude on our team in the past are now gone, and those thats still there dont get much PT...

You'd know that if you had any knowledge of my team.

We're young, and we have to learn how to close out games, we've been in on every single one of them and have been competitive but we dont know how to win.

 

[JoshHoward5]

They overpaid him to hell, yeah, but he at least had some solid chemistry with Steve Nash in Phoenix, who does he have in New York?

Or he can wait out a year and play with Melo and/or CP3

 

[Alwan32]

the knicks will be good, they have amare playing way differently than he did in phoenix so give the knicks time they will be raw