When superstars collide, results suffer. For those of you who have not been following, the Knicks are not playing very well. We all know they have the talent, but for whatever reason New York has yet to gel. Slowly but surely, some of the reasons are coming to light. According to the NY Post, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire are not exactly seeing eye-to-eye.
“We as a team need to do a better job getting Amar’e the ball,’’ Anthony admitted. “I have the ball in my hands. Maybe it’s on me. Maybe I have to give him the ball a little more, help him out with that. We’ll talk probably (today) and try to figure it out together. If I’m doing too much, I want him to tell me. I want the guys on the team to tell me if I’m doing too much.’’
Those comments came after a night in which the Knicks lost their sixth straight game and fans at the Garden booed Anthony. Carmelo scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but he was 10-for-30 from the floor. He’s obviously shooting too much, and a source told the Post it has strained the relationship between he and Stoudemire.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Anthony has been too obsessed with his points and Stoudemire is too concerned with Anthony taking over the team. There’s also too much finger-pointing, according to the source.
Stoudemire and Anthony are co-captains and their impending meeting is more important than anything (Mike) D’Antoni can say.
Anthony also said he will take the blame for the team’s offensive struggles since New York’s offense runs through him. He stopped just barely short of blaming his poor performance on nagging injuries.
“Maybe I should take the blame for the games we’re losing,’’ Anthony said. “Coach does run the offense through me. I’ll take the blame. It’s obvious I’m beat up. I don’t want to use that as any excuse. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate everything, reevaluate my body, sit with the trainers, see what’s going on.’’
If Anthony and Stoudemire can’t learn to coexist, it would be tough to imagine the Knicks having any type of sustained success. In fact, there is even talk of the Knicks shopping Amar’e and Tyson Chandler for Dwight Howard. If Anthony can’t learn to share the wealth, he would have the same problems playing alongside Howard, anyway.
