A Post Mortem of Amar'e Stoudemire's New York Knicks Career

April 14th, 2010: The 2009-2010 New York Knicks season ends.

• Record: 29-53
• Opponents’ Points per Game: 105.9 (28th out of 30 teams)
• Defensive Rating: 111.6 (27 out of 30 teams)
• Traded their 2012 1st Round Draft Pick + the rights to swap their 2011 1st Round Draft Pick to Houston in exchange for Tracy McGrady’s expiring contract and/or lifeless corpse — in hopes of clearing cap space for LeBron.

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July 8th, 2010: LeBron James signs with the Miami Heat.

Despite a couple of pointless playoff appearances in the 2000s, the New York Knicks franchise reached ‘Rock Bottom’ in July 2010. YEARS of hoarding + overpaying washed up vets, collecting expiring contracts, and trading draft picks — all in anticipation of landing LeBron James — laid to waste.

It was supposed to happen. LeBron was ready to leave Cleveland. He wanted to play in a ‘big market’. He was going to resurrect ‘The Mecca of Basketball’. He was going to win a championship in New York. He wanted to become immortal, and the only way he could ever get there was by winning in New York.

These are all things that we Knicks fans convinced ourselves of for two straight seasons between 2008-2010. It’s the only way we could make sense of the transactions and decisions that the Knicks front office was making. I mean, our front office couldn’t actually go through with some of the trades & signings that they did, unless you KNOW LeBron coming to New York is a lock/written in blood, right? RIGHT?

Wrong.

It didn’t happen.

Not only did our beloved team just treat the last two seasons like leftover Chinese food that has been sitting in the refrigerator for two weeks, they whiffed on hooking up with their crush, and in turn: had traded the future away.

There was simply NOTHING to look forward to.

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February 19th, 2009: Amar'e Stoudemire suffers a detached retina vs. the Los Angeles Clippers.

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2009-2010 NBA Season: The Phoenix.

Despite multiple microfracture knee and several career-threatening major eye surgeries in the past four seasons, Amar’e Stoudemire rises from the ashes, once again, and has a mega All-Star Season — averaging 23 Points (56% shooting!!) AND 9 Rebounds per game.

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July 5th, 2010: Amar’e Stoudemire signs an UNINSURED 5 Year/$100 Million contract with the New York Knicks.

Once LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat, the world collapsed on the Knicks even more than imagined. LeBron’s signing create a domino effect across the Association, as franchises realized that they too missed out on the LeBron Sweepstakes — and scrambled to sign the remaining free agent superstars (Dirk, Wade, Bosh, Joe Johnson, etc…) as quickly as possible.

For whatever reason, the Knicks struck out again…

As a fan, it was a feeling of watching all the other NBA teams get past the bouncers into the “We got a star to sign with us!” club, and when I approached the door, I was denied because the venue was “at capacity”/left outside holding my cell phone in one hand — and my dignity in the other…

What just happened?

The Knicks and I are out here texting the other teams to come out and get us, but, there’s no cell phone service in there — and let’s be honest, in the NBA: “Bros Before Hoes” is a farce. No franchise has an obligation to help another team, especially when there are a ton of free agent superstar “hoes” out on the dance floor.

So, as the Knicks and I stood outside trying to figure out what to do — thoughts of: “Well, this sucks — might as well catch a cab and go home…” rapidly raced through our minds…

…that was until another denied straggler appeared at the front door, and had the same issue of getting in.

He was a 6’10’, said he was visiting from Cypress Creek High School in Florida, and was looking for a place to party too.

His name was Amar’e Stoudemire.

Within minutes, we hit it off with this “Amar’e” guy — and he invited us to join him at a VIP table at his club down the street. He warned us about how much it would cost to sit down with him, but, being as desperate as we were to find a cool place to party that night — we accepted his offer.

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December 2010/January 2011: When the moon hits your eye, THAT’S AMARE.

Despite the thought of what our credit card bill was going to look like the next morning … this club Amar’e brought us to was AMAZING.

On December 15, 2010 Amar’e Stoudemire set a Knicks franchise record with his ninth straight 30-point game.

On December 17, 2010, Stoudemire set a franchise record with his ninth straight game shooting 50 percent or better from the field.

On January 27, 2011, Amar’e Stoudemire was named a starter on the Eastern Conference All-Star Team alongside LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, and Dwight Howard. He became the first Knick player to start in the All-Star game since Patrick Ewing.

Amar’e was ultimately selected to the All-NBA second-team.

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February 2012: Check, Please!

That moment every drunk “IM HAVING FUN!!!” person dreads — last call. The lights in the club start to flicker, and you are handed a booklet by a beautiful-looking hostess who now doesn’t seem to be as-friendly as she was when we first sat down. You open said booklet, look down, and uh oh…

In February 2012, Stoudemire misses four games mourning the death of his older brother, Hazell, who died suddenly in a car accident. Later that month, Stoudemire is not selected nor voted in to the All-Star game, the first time since 2006.

Something’s not right. Stoudemire was clearly struggling with efficiency and explosiveness (FG % had dropped from .502 to .483, and his average plus/minus per 48 minutes had PLUMMETED from +0.7 to -1.4) and he blamed it on “the weight he gained during the NBA lockout”. Thus, he engaged in a “weight loss program”, losing 10 pounds in 10 days.

The result? He suffered a bulging disk in his back — and missed (practically) the rest of the regular season. He returned in time for the playoffs, but, the only thing he accomplished was shattering his hand — while punching a fire extinguisher stanchion, after a playoff game loss against the Miami Heat.

He came back for Game 4, but, by then: it was too late. The Knicks lost the series in 5 games.

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2012-2013: Let’s Split the Check, Do You have Paypal?

Between 2012 and 2014, we never really heard much from Amar’e Stoudemire. After that one fantastic night in the club, he had his episode with the fire extinguisher, we exchanged texts a couple of times, but, he never really called back to hang out.

Stoudemire missed the first 30 games of the 2012-2013 season with another knee injury.

He came back on December 21st, 2012, only to fall victim to another right knee debridement surgery on March 9th, 2013. He missed the rest of the season, despite making a brief, pointless appearance vs. the Pacers in the playoffs.

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2013-2014: The 3AM “Hey…” Text Message

Just when we had finally moved on from Amar’e, and found another source for our club activities … He sent us a text one day to hang out again. Seeing as though there wasn’t much to lose, we obliged…

After injuries limited him to 47 and 29 games played in the previous two seasons, Stoudemire played in 65 games for the Knicks during the 2013-2014 season. While his statistics and box scores suggest different, it just wasn’t the same…He was a major liability on defense (-2.3 Average Defensive Plus/Minus, the worst of his career), a black hole for ball movement (-0.8 Average Offensive Plus/Minus, -3.1 Average Overall Plus Minus per 48 Minutes), and was siphoning important minutes from up-and-coming Knicks players (-0.4 VORP “Value Over Replacement Player”, the worst of his career).

We were having fun with him and everything, and certainly appreciated the effort he put into setting this night up for us, but, it just wasn’t the same fun we had that one night in 2010…

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February 16th, 2015: The End of An Era.

Between 2014 and today, you didn’t miss much. Amar’e played for the Knicks. He played hard. He suffered another knee injury, missed 12 out of 13 games, and did everything within in his physical capacity to get on the floor and play as minutes as possible. He even took Ice Wine Baths.

Ultimately, here we are. The Knicks have bought out Amar’e’s contract for the remainder of the season, and he is officially a free agent.

I’d now like to say a few words, in memoriam of his New York Knicks career. You may or may not agree with them, but, it’s how I feel.

I don’t regret signing Amar’e Stoudemire to the gargantuan contract we did in 2010 ONE BIT. 

Was the length and amount of said contract an albatross? Yes.

Was rolling the dice and signing him with NO INJURY INSURANCE the worst transaction in franchise history? Yes (and trust me, this is the Knicks — there are plenty to choose from)

Was he able to parlay his amazing 2010 season into a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card with Knicks fans? Yes.

Could the Knicks have not been idiots, wasted their amnesty on Chauncey Billups (WHOSE $14.2 MILLION OPTION THEY HAD JUST PICKED UP INSTEAD OF BUYING HIM OUT FOR $3.7 MILLION) — and used it to wash Amar’e’s contract off the books instead? Yes.

Did the original signing Amar’e make the Knicks relevant? YES.

I am not going to sit here and try to justify the amount of money and years the Knicks gave a guy who proved, year-after-year, that he couldn’t play a full-season without getting hurt. However, let me tell you from experience: there is only one thing worse than awful free agent contracts — and that is being irrelevant. As a Knicks fan, I don’t care if I’m able to pull a girl out of the proverbial club … we just want to be in it.

Signing Amar’e Stoudemire did just that. It was the biggest move the franchise made in a decade, and the fact that people we’re talking about my team, whether positively or negatively, spewed lighter fluid all over my Knicks soul — which had, at the time, been reduced to a bunch of coal embers.

Maybe this is what makes the Knicks, the Knicks.

Other than 4 years in the 90’s, we don’t know what success is. (I wasn’t alive for the Championships in the 70’s, so they don’t count for me.) While most teams judge a season’s success based on what goes up in the rafters, I was genuinely thrilled that the Knicks were being scheduled for nationally-televised broadcasts again. Everything else felt like I was playing with house money.

Within months of Amar’e’s arrival, perennial superstar Carmelo Anthony forced his way to New York TO PLAY WITH AMARE.

I understand and agree with naysayers to my opinion…

“Big Whoop. He was able to attract Melo and they’ve done absolutely nothing.”

“You are happy because someone who is paid $100 Million to play basketball played hard?”

“Nothing successful came from this. Him trying hard does not translate to results.”

I am writing this eulogy today because I BELIEVED these things would happen — for the entirety of Amar’e’s Knicks career…

…the same way I believed and supported the Knicks tanking/trading away the future to get themselves cap room to go after LeBron in 2010.

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Wikipedia defines “Stockholm Syndrome” as a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors.

I want to believe that I’m not being held “captive” by the Knicks.

I’ve sworn them off more times than I can count.

As I said in my op-ed about our owner, James Dolan, I’m lying to you, and more importantly to myself, if I try and say I won’t be sprinting towards the Knicks band wagon front door whenever this team makes another big “free agent splash”, whether it’s a “good one” or just another instance of “Knicks doing Knicks things”.

Long-story short: My name is Rob, and I am a Knicks degenerate.

As far as Amar’e is concerned, what you think about him is ultimately your opinion and you’re entitled to it. However, I do have a request for you… whether you’re a fan of another team, just a casual Knicks fan, or a die-hard: I hope you hold off passing judgment re: Stoudemire until AFTER this offseason — when the Knicks will most likely face the SAME EXACT situation as they did in 2010…waiting outside of the club, trying to get in.

If we go hang out with the free agent black swan again … so be it … maybe it’ll work out this time…

…If we don’t: I want you to feel what it’s like to be standing on the wrong side of the velvet rope, and know everyone else but you is getting laid.

Rest In Peace, New York Knicks Amar’e. For better or worse, we will always remember you…