CHICAGO — Listen up, LeBron. If you come to the Knicks, you would get to play with Amar’e Stoudemire, too.
A team source told The Post a $100 million deal for Suns forward Amar’e Stoudemire is “as good as done.” A source said Stoudemire’s flying into New York tonight and will meet with the Knicks Monday to finalize an agreement.
Said one Eastern Conference executive: “It’s my understanding he’s going to the Knicks with a full max deal.”
Whether Stoudemire, who spent part of his childhood growing up in upstate Newburgh, becomes wing man to James doesn’t look great. But at least the Knicks know they won’t get shut out of the elite free agents and there’s also a possibility this jars Joe Johnson, who has yet to formally finalize the Hawks’ max deal.
On Thursday, a source told The Post Stoudemire definitely would join the Knicks if Johnson did, but now Stoudemire realizes this is the best play financially — regardless of LeBron or Johnson.
The Knicks have not been told they are out of the James Derby and perhaps this Stoudemire development will make him think about New York. James lobbied to no avail for the Cavaliers to trade for Stoudemire at the deadline.
The Suns have moved on without Stoudemire, re-signing forward Channing Frye and yesterday inking forward Hakim Warrick. A source told The Post recently Stoudemire’s Suns contract was not insured because of past microfracture knee surgery, and the Knicks appear the lone team willing to give him an uninsured maximum contract of five years.
An anonymous source told Yahoo the Knicks have fallen out of the James chase following their “We’ll make you a billionaire” presentation, with the notion it paled in comparison to the Nets’ spiel.
Knicks officials appeared ticked by the speculation. If they are out of the race, team president Donnie Walsh believes he would have been informed by now.
“I don’t know why, that’s not how the presentation felt to me when I was in it,” Walsh said angrily after meeting. “No one connected with [LeBron’s] camp said that.”
Some in the organization feel the Nets are behind the report. In fact, there are sources who said the Nets may be paranoid that their global pitch did not go as well as they think it did.
Continuing their whirlwind recruiting tour, the Knicks met with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in downtown Chicago, but the former Team USA teammates appear ready to hook up in either Chicago or Miami as they have the same agent.
However, James still runs July and could disrupt that plan. He meets with the Bulls today after sitting down with Pat Riley and Heat officials yesterday.
The Knicks obviously hope the Stoudemire stuff gets James’ attention.
A team source said for all the publicity about the billionaire presentation, D’Antoni and James talked a lot of basketball philosophy and James laughed often at the video testimonials from celebrities and fans.
“I feel good about the meetings,” said Walsh. “We’re past that now. We’ll move on to the next step.”
One team source said, “We think everything is in play.”
Stoudemire has the big personality perfect for New York and most recently took shots at Knick Tracy McGrady.
Stoudemire goes through managers/agents like water. After he fired yet another manager two years ago, Stoudemire told a Phoenix paper, “I felt like, from a marketing standpoint, I wasn’t reaching my full potential. It’s a great opportunity for me to move forward. With my personality and aura and swagger, I’ve got a great chance to be marketed. It was definitely hard because I had established a friendship with these guys, but a lot of companies like me and adore me.”
Despite mixed reports about D’Antoni’s feelings on him, the Knicks have deemed him a maximum player since they opened up enough cap space for a second one in February
According to a league source familiar with D’Antoni’s thinking, D’Antoni didn’t love Stoudemire in Phoenix, once thought he had a low basketball IQ and poor defensive instincts. Sometimes, the source said, D’Antoni thought the Suns were better when Stoudemire was out with an injury and Boris Diaw had a bigger role.
Yesterday, D’Antoni sounded as positive as his bright pink button-down oxford.
“The four presentations we’ve done — they really listened hard,” a weary D’Antoni said of his meetings with Mike Miller, Johnson, Wade and Bosh. “They liked what they heard and I’m sure they’re going to listen to other presentations, like what they hear, and then have to make a decision. This is not an easy choice for anybody — they’re going to have their patience and do what’s best for them.”
marc.berman@nypost.com