Amar’e Stoudemire does not really love Carmelo Anthony. If we needed another reminder of that, the quotes he gave on Sunday served as a reminder.
Stoudemire returned to Madison Square Garden as a visitor on Sunday for the first time since departing the Knicks in 2015, and his comments had some fairly significant anti-Anthony undertones, particularly when he was asked about Jeremy Lin’s departure.
“If [Lin] stayed, it would have been cool, but everyone wasn’t a fan of him being the new star, so he didn’t stay long,” Stoudemire told reporters, via Andrew Keh of the New York Times. “A lot of times, you’ve got to enjoy someone else’s success, and that wasn’t the case for us during that stretch. You’ve got to enjoy that. You’ve got to let that player enjoy himself and cherish those moments. But he was becoming a star, and I don’t think everyone was pleased with that.”
Gee, I wonder who he’s referencing. Stoudemire went further when asked if he felt sympathy for Anthony, given that he remains stuck in a losing situation in New York.
“When you get involved in a situation, you have to take ownership of it,” Stoudemire said. “You have to make sure you make the right decisions for your team and teammates. You have to become a complete player in order to bring your team out of a rut. Everyone can’t do it. It’s not always easy.”
Considering Stoudemire has previously noted that Anthony didn’t exactly assist him much, it’s hard not to view these comments as another assertion that Anthony is selfish. It’s just more evidence of a grand experiment that did not yield much fruit when it was going on.
