some love for amar'e

by old 34 on Jan 19, 2012 9:44 PM EST

a friend showed me this picture of shump and amar'e last week and it made me really happy:

not because of the giants. it's just that amar'e looking out for our young pups helps me trust that the knicks can work it out, that shump can grow into full shumpitude, and that stat will outlandishly dominate once more.

listen, i know amar'e has kind of been sucking but where's the love? he came here last year to bring the knicks back. other people did not take the money. amar'e was blatantly unafraid of the pressure or the media spotlight or that little preceding decade of disaster and loss. and he did it, he actually helped bring us back. do you remember how exciting those days were? the 30-pt streak during a 13-1 run? this was last season!! he was absurdly heroic and just destroyed people like no knick had done in years. and he was first at practice and set the example for the rest of the team of how a basketball player needs to push him- or her-self. and yes, we know he came with suspect defense, but he had classic 4th quarter blocks and stops and led the ragtag group of youngsters to be an incredibly exciting and heartwarming team-- amar'e and the kids was so nice.

obviously he's not the perfect star. he needs someone to get him the ball in motion. he needs a friend to wreak havoc with. what's so wrong with that? isn't that oddly more endearing? and it's still pretty awesome, since when he has that, he wreaks some serious freaking havoc. if things go well with the back of baron, he should have a friend like that again pretty soon. in the meantime, i say he has earned some solidarity through this patch that has us literally playing without a point guard.

melo is amazing, but he's not at the giants game being big brother to shump shump. and he didn't get here first and make the knicks great again. there's a lot of stat-bashing going on in the comments these days and i just wanted to give the guy some appreciation. didn't he lead the league in fourth quarter scoring for most of last season? hasn't he historically taken his game up a notch in the playoffs and during clutch situations? these are good qualities.

this team of knicks with stat and a point guard and melo and tchandler and landry and shump and td and jorts can be real nice. it can happen.

hoping the picture helps you all too.

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Amare picked the Jets to

beat the Giants in week 16. He said he had to go with Revis. F Amare!!!

The greatest player ever!!!

by terellchewy on Jan 19, 2012 10:03 PM EST reply actions 2 recs

I think he's a cool guy, but he's been horrendous on the floor lately

And for the record, Balkman was with them at that game, so Shump might be getting some bad influence too.

Stainer of mountaintops.

by Chairman Meow on Jan 19, 2012 10:15 PM EST reply actions

David Lee is still a much better player than Amare.
Think of the numbers Lee put up with Chris Duhon as his point guard.
Look at the number s Lee is putting up without a point guard @ Golden State.

Amare needs a Nash to be an excellent player; or at the very least a Felton.
Davis Lee never had ANY kind of point guard.

Put David Lee with a Nash, or a Bob Cousy, or an Oscar Robertson. Can a
white guy who can’t jump AVERAGE BETTER THAN 54.5% from the field?
With one of those point guards Lee would have a fg% probably about 60%.

by frankiec on Jan 19, 2012 11:08 PM EST reply actions

How does such a David Lee slobberknocker not know he was in a dunk contest?

Fish Fingers give me a break.

by GAx on Jan 20, 2012 1:09 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

And won it!

by flossy on Jan 20, 2012 7:55 AM EST up reply actions

I don't care!

Lee’s a good player. He’s no longer here. He’s different than Amar’e. He puts up good numbers. They’re both nice guys. Lee’s never been on a winning team. Amar’e at the max or David Lee at the near-max – what’s a better deal? I don’t know.

Dude, if it’s that important to you, go root for the Warriors. I do, unless they’re playing the Knicks.

Get The Frickin' Rebound

by fuhry on Jan 20, 2012 1:29 PM EST up reply actions

I thought it was Amar'e and The Funky Bunch?

luhdisfoto2

posi..tive ....thoughts..?
@krishhhayyy

by gymtanlandry on Jan 19, 2012 11:35 PM EST reply actions

sorry to put a damper on amare for a bit

I love the guy i agree he deserves alot of credit but his legacy as a knick hasnt been written yet if this struggle turns out to be a long term thing his legacy might end up being a player who took us to a one and done playoff run and than being a huge contract that took away the knicks able to add talent and contend for a title lets be realistic if amare continues to struggle and cant play at a high level through out his contract his legacy wont be he saved the franchise his legacy will ultimately be he held the team back and i always point out lebron was getting a max deal so was wade and bosh but amare stoudemire wasnt unless a team was willing to gamble on him the knicks took a huge risk giving him that big of a contract when no one else would so i dont think we really owe him anything

by titansfan3q7 on Jan 19, 2012 11:47 PM EST reply actions

I don’t know where they get the idea from that he saved a franchise and brought them back. At one poin t there were some who were already comparing him to Ewing and that only makes Barkley sound right when he said Ewing was never appreciated by New York. This dude getting 100 million and he is not even the best power forward. I would take Zack Randolph over him, Aldridge, west and others. Some people just amaze me. We have no money left because we gave him 100 million and this dude gets outplayed by scrubs. At the beginning of this season he was talking about “hunting some heat” but he should worry about playing the way 100 million dollars should. He will get humiliated by the Heat and I am sure they laughing at him right now.

by RASHADI on Jan 20, 2012 2:04 AM EST up reply actions

The Knics haven't consistently been title contenders in almost 40 years.

Cut the guy some slack, Geesh

by Robert Curre on Jan 20, 2012 11:37 AM EST up reply actions

Last year was last year. And it was cool and all for a bit.

But this year is this year. And PG or bo PG, dude is missing open shots all the same. Yesteryear means nada if you suck right now.

by Crackback on Jan 20, 2012 12:29 AM EST reply actions

nah man

He has mad credit with me, and as exasperated with his game as I have been this year, he still will always have that stamp of 1. Not just on his jersey, but the first to have the balls to cross the Rubicon of that GWB and have even bigger balls to say “The Knicks are back”.

I wish I had a deli so I could offer him free pastrami for life.

Fish Fingers give me a break.

by GAx on Jan 20, 2012 1:11 AM EST up reply actions

Exactly. As if one good season is gonna make him a legend. Marbury took us to playoffs in first year too so why don’t we all respect him like this?

by RASHADI on Jan 20, 2012 2:04 AM EST up reply actions

'Cause Marbury was an a-hole who lost his mind and sexually harassed people

by flossy on Jan 20, 2012 7:57 AM EST up reply actions

i admire your love for him

But that’s the nature of this business. It’s hard to root for a guy that just angers people. And I wish people would stop worshiping him just because he chose the knicks. We gave him the most money and it’s NYC. Of course he will come here. Where else was he gonna go? Miami didn’t want him and nobody else would give a guy like that 100 million when he needs an elite point guard just to score and allows more points on the other end. I would take a deep team with Zach Randolph, Crawford, Galo, Chandler, Lee, richardson, and the rest of the guys over this ugly crap we seeing. We were winning the first season MDA got here and started off the season good but then traded away our good players so we could get Lebron and that was a waste of time.

Amare was taken out of desperation because nobody else came so they had to get a “superstar” and this is what we got now. It’s hard to start rooting and even watch anymore. I go back to the days of Mark Jackson, ewing, Starks, Oakley, Mason, and all them dudes. So I am not gonna kiss this dude shoes because he came to NY. He didn’t bring nothing back so far and he is only showing that he was overpaid but we never learn.There wouldn’t be this “he brought us back” stuff if we didn’t have the worst front office and owner running things.

Sorry to sound so harsh and I am not attacking you at all. Just a little angry and depressed. I have never in my life not cared or avoided watching but now I dont care anymore and I wish I could just stop being a fan but its from the heart and I cant stop. Those bandwagons are lucky because they can just shop for new teams whenever a new dynasty is made but I rather be a real fan than like those scrubs. I just hope things can turn around, be fun again, and hopefully I will feel better then. right now it’s not there anymore.

by RASHADI on Jan 20, 2012 1:58 AM EST reply actions

I just cant see holding this franchise back again for amare

I love him too glad he came here we needed something i thought we shoulda kept our space and chips and thought it out more the contract was way to big for him and now if his body goes south which at times last year he said he was tired and beat up and needed days off and this year said he couldnt play every game which is kind of understandable but he didnt play well in the playoffs which is what sports come down to i know he was hurt but still is disappointing and you cant pass up an opportunity to make this team better to keep this guy just because he took us back to the playoffs ill always remember how magical last year was but I want our future to look bright but everytime i see how little cap space we have for the next couple years no draft picks and three guys taking up all our cap space three guys that will be old by the time their contracts expire i dont think it is cray to believe this may be amares last year or next to last year playing at a respectable level which scares me to death if were gonna move him we have to do it before he really breaks down

by titansfan3q7 on Jan 20, 2012 2:27 AM EST reply actions

Not hating, but a good way to get your opinion read is to actually punctuate and define your thoughts

I start reading a few of your posts so far and lose my train of thought, so-to-speak, and move on. If we can’t skim, I’m sure many won’t read it.

by screamedia on Jan 20, 2012 9:26 AM EST up reply actions

great dude, great sentiment, rooting for him...

but the silver lining i think most of us are looking for are wins and competitive games come playoff time. we’re not rooting for “jerry’s kids”… we’re basketball fans and we’ve been starving for players (yes, with his kind of character) who rise to challenges, not stir pity and understanding.

by bucketsncents on Jan 20, 2012 7:01 AM EST reply actions

Don't get me wrong I love Amare for coming here

but don’t act like he jumped at the chance to come here. He did get a $100 mil, guaranteed offer from NY that NO other team was gonna offer. You can tell the way he talks he clearly would have chose to stay in Pho had the money been right.

But I hate to see him playing like this and receive all the criticism ESPECIALLY based on what he did for the Org last year!!

You just got Tysoned!!!!!!

by Jason Bee on Jan 20, 2012 8:33 AM EST reply actions