Amar’e Stoudemire’s view on the upcoming Knicks season is clear: it’s championship or bust.
In a television interview during the Knicks summer league team’s 94-92 loss to Toronto Thursday in Las Vegas, Stoudemire praised the defending champion Miami Heat for their mental approach to the season, and said the Knicks must look at the upcoming season the same way.
“They take the game very serious, and also they believe that anything less then a championship is a wasted season,” Stoudemire said. “We have to take that same mentality going into next year … anything less than a championship is a wasted season.”
The Knicks won’t be chasing that championship with Jeremy Lin, after the Knicks failed to match Lin’s offer sheet from the Rockets.
“Last year was a great year for Jeremy,” Stoudemire said. “He did a phenomenal job for us when I was injured and Carmelo was injured. He pretty much revitalized the team … he got us back to where we needed to be and we took that momentum on to the postseason.
“But with those great games he played, I think he deserved his contract he got with Houston … [it was] too bad we couldn’t keep him, but he’s gonna do a great job with Houston.”
Stoudemire is coming off a difficult season with the Knicks, in which he struggled with injuries and saw his numbers tumble from his stellar opening season in New York. After playing like a legitimate MVP candidate through much of the 2010-11 season, averaging over 25 points and eight rebounds per game, Stoudemire’s posted averages of 17.5 points and 7.8 rebounds – his lowest numbers over a full season since his rookie year.
He attributed his struggles to a combination of things – mainly the back injury he suffered during the Knicks’ first-round loss to the Celtics the year before, and the fact that he came to training camp at 260 pounds – 20 pounds heavier than he said he is now.
“I couldn’t talk to any physicians on the team [during the lockout], and I had the back injury,” he said. “So I was still trying to recover from that, so I wasn’t able to play any basketball until training camp … so all I was doing was lifting weights and trying to make sure my back was strong enough for the season.
“So I came back 260, and with that being said, I wasn’t able to get any cardio because of the back injury and the lockout, so when I got to training camp it took awhile for me to get into shape, so I was playing catch-up the whole year. It was frustrating for me, because I wanted to have a better, productive season, but I couldn’t because I was behind because of the lockout.
“I’m ahead now, I feel awesome right now and I can’t wait for next year.”
Along with his injury issues, Stoudemire and the Knicks’ other high-scoring forward, Carmelo Anthony, have struggled to co-exist since Anthony arrived. But Stoudemire attributes much of those struggles to having never had a full season together.
“Well, first of all, we have to have a full season together, and a full training camp,’ he said. “That’s the first part is having that full training camp, so Coach Woodson can implement his full strategy on both ends of the court, and we can continue to practice together and work as a unit, and then we can go from there.”
And while the Knicks won’t have Lin, they will have Raymond Felton running the point, who Stoudemire thrived playing with under Mike D’Antoni until Felton was dealt to Denver as part of the Anthony trade.
“Awesome, awesome acquisition of Raymond,” Stoudemire said. “He’s a phenomenal player … he’s one of those guys that you know is gonna bring his “A” game, play extremely hard on both ends of the court, and he’s ready to win.”
tbontemps@nypost.com