SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.– While roughing it out here, I got lost one evening and stumbled upon an indigenous chatterbox who was kind enough to steer me in the right direction regarding Amar’e Stoudemire’s decision to reject the Suns and sign with the Knicks.
As we all know, the Suns were unwilling to warranty more than three years of the $99 million, five-year proposal to the uninsurable Apostrophe.
The Knicks, on the other hand, frantic for a free agent of import having failed to tempt LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson, hungrily guaranteed the whole shebang, despite a Mayo Clinic of health issues, not to mention Stoudemire’s habitual irresponsibility and unconcealed Phoenix friction with coach Mike D’Antoni.
I hate when people use that expression and then go right ahead their merry way and mention whatever anyway!
At any rate, as it turns out, minutes were the heart of the matter that made Stoudemire’s choice a no-brainer. The Suns’ distinguished medical staff was convinced his surgically repaired knees — which apparently are attached to his legs, which seemingly are connected to his curently bulging disk — wouldn’t tolerate long-term overuse.
(I’ve been unable to confirm the following hearsay, but supposedly Heat doctors did an MRI exam on Stoudemire’s knees and delivered a gloomier prognosis than the Suns had. For whatever it’s worth, microfracture surgery was performed on his left knee in October 2005. His right was scoped in October 2007. He also suffered a detached retina in 2007.)
As a result, in order to fully guarantee year four, Stoudemire had to play 2,200 minutes in year three, and 2,200 minutes in year four to fully guarantee year five.
No other perk existed in the offer and no other contingency — league-leader in scoring or rebounding, First Team All-League, MVP, nada — would have activated those guarantees.
So, Stoudemire had to be able to play to get paid in years four and five.
This is his 10th season. It’s revealing to note, fascinating, actually, that Stoudemire played 2,200 minutes or more in six of those first nine, 2,025 in another. The most daylight he witnessed was in year three, 2004-05 (2,889). Surgery shrunk participation to a mere three games the next, shades of things to come, apparently.
Stoudemire was all-in last season, his first as a Knick. More than a few forward observers felt D’Antoni didn’t rest him enough in his quest to make the playoffs. He accrued 2,870 minutes, second highest total of his career. His back gave out after he hung on the rim in warm-ups in the opening round of the playoffs against the Celtics.
This season, following exhaustive rehabilitation during the summer, Stoudemire again is on the shelf with solemn back issues, possibly for the remainder of the season. Already he has missed nine of 52 games and his minutes are the fewest (1,428, an average of 33.8) since 2006-07.
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At the risk of belaboring the subject, sources claim Steve Nash’s back is as bad as it has ever been, and that it’s affecting his shooting. In the last 10 games, the Suns point guard has taken more than eight shots once: 8-of-16 on March 27 against the Spurs.
Excluding that game, he has gone 20-of-44. That’s just under five attempts per for perhaps the league’s expert marksman, who’s playing for a mediocre team. Maybe that’s the real problem. There’s no one to help him get off, which explains why he was so peeved at management’s passive pursuit of free agent Boris Diaw.
At the same time, Nash’s back certainly isn’t preventing him from finding teammates with basket-weaving passes. Again, excluding that Spurs loss (eight assists), he has averaged a little over 12 per over the same nine-game span. For the season, the 38-year-old is averaging 12.7 points and an NBA-leading 11.3 assists.
Here’s how we’ll know if Nash is serious about co-starring with the Heat: He’ll book air time with a deranged JetBlue pilot or Jim Gray.
This just in: Column contributor Doug Branch says he heard Stephon Marbury will agree to return to the Knicks if Anucha Browne Sanders would, too.”
Big week for the Audubon Society: Glen Davis (35G) and Reggie Evans (25G) were fined for flipping the bird.
Isn’t it long past about time that Jeff Van Gundy recuse himself from working a game where Stan Van Gundy is working. I would consider this a conflict of interest — if, indeed, I had any interest.
In typically arrogant fashion, Don Nelson alerted the Bay Area media he’d been voted into the Hall of Fame days before last night’s official acknowledgement and introductions of the inductees at halftime of the NCAA Kentucky-Kansas championship game. Former governors of Illinois demand to count the ballots.
“Turns out Reggie Miller got eight votes in nine seconds,” column chondriac Richie Kalikow learned.
I see that outgoing Bobcats coach Paul Silas said he’s going to give younger guys more time. Just like Cher.
So, Burger King has slipped to No. 3 in the market and has revamped its menu. None too soon, column castigator Frank Drucker remarked. “Here’s how bad it has become … the King is on the verge of being replaced by a military junta.”