By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
GREENBURGH, N.Y. –– With Wednesday evening’s Game 5 loss and first round playoff elimination still an open wound early Thursday afternoon, Carmelo Anthony addressed the media at the MSG Training Center after a difficult season and an even harder, more frustrating playoff series against the Miami Heat
A lot has been made about Anthony teaming with Amar’e Stoudemire and whether or not the two stars can co-exist.
After a lockout-shortened season complete with Linsanity, a coaching change, injuries, lineup shuffling and endless questions about Anthony’s ability to lead a team to the Promised Land, he finally sounded like he’d had enough on Thursday.
“I get tired of hearing that, man. I get tired of hearing about, ‘Can it work? Will it work?’” Anthony said. “We’re here to play basketball. When we win, it works. When we lose, it doesn’t work.”
That certainly sounds like a man who is at least a little fed up, but he’s also a man who has no choice but to march on and do everything in his power to make it work with Stoudemire, recently-named NBA Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler and Jeremy Lin or whoever else the Knicks decide to go with at point guard.
Anthony, in the middle of a 3-year, $65 million contract, isn’t likely to be going anywhere after Madison Square Garden Chairman James Dolan worked to get him to New York last winter in a trade that cost the Knicks four players and two draft picks.
Stoudemire, who missed 13 games this season with a bulging disk in his lower back, just finished the second year of a 5-year, $99.7 million free agent deal that is uninsured and as a result, likely untradeable.
In Anthony’s defense, both he and Stoudemire have dealt with injuries since their tenure together began in the middle of last season. Add to that a very short training camp after the lockout ended and a coaching change from Mike D’Antoni to Mike Woodson, and there has been little time to build chemistry and continuity.
“It definitely can work. I feel like we’ve only been together for a year now, a half a year last year and this is like a half season together. It could work for sure,” said Stoudemire in much less of a frustrated tone as opposed to Anthony. “It’s just a matter of us having a consistent year. Obviously last year was the trade that changed the whole team. This year was a coaching change, so it’s been up and down.”
It should be noted that when Stoudemire and Anthony have been on the floor together since the latter joined the equation, the Knicks are 32-41, including 1-8 in the postseason over the last two seasons. With all the money committed to the duo, that record will not cut it.
However, next season will be a crucial one for all parties given it will be their first training camp together and presumably healthy. In other words, there should be no excuses.
“I get tired of hearing it, we’ll figure it out,” Anthony said. “I don’t think it’s something that is that difficult to figure out. It’ll get figured out, I just get tired of hearing it.”
