Retired_Doc wrote:xsaberx wrote:http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/knicksblog/knicks_stoudemire_says_stay_tuned_RMcyac6WD5mtclHMZ579RO
“Stay tuned,” Stoudemire said after practice Tuesday. “Stay tuned.”
“It’s the lockout, man,” Stoudemire said. “The lockout really, it was to my favor to the point I had time to heal [my back]. But I didn’t have time to play basketball. I didn’t do any basketball at all. I played one game, that was in Miami, that charity game. That was the only time I played full-court basketball. The whole offseason was no up and down for me until I got here and played for training camp.”
“It’s rhythm,” he said. “Whenever you’re away from the game for six months or so, that’s the longest I’ve ever been away from the game of basketball, as far as going up and down and playing. It was definitely a rhythm thing. Now I feel great.”
“Every second half of the year, I’ve got a tendency to turn it up. Because you know how important it is after the All-Star break. Getting that momentum going into the postseason is always very, very key. You want to be playing at your best going into the postseason. It’s going to be an incredible second half of the year for me.”
Uhhh, excuse me, Amare, but did you "turn it up," the second half of last year? Really, I forgot!
Exactly ..... the first thing I thought of when I read what he said. He tailed off immensely from the first half of last year, although that 1st half was pretty impressive. His tail off was excused for him logging huge minutes throughout the 1st half, yet statistics show that his mpg were very similar to his career averages..... yet another excuse ?
In my eyes he broke down in the second half of last year because his knees just couldn't take the punishment of a full season anymore. The back injury that happened at the end of the season was unfortunate and still looks like it lingers in today's Amare. In my eyes his body is breaking down ..... and before all you Amare jockstrap holders get on my case for what I just said, don't put words in my mouth that Amare will be playing in a wheelchair. Amare has lost his explosiveness, he is now a mere mortal on the basketball court. We will see flashes of the old Amare and his supporters will point and say "see", but those flashes will be few and far between.
Hope I'm wrong but this is the way I see it w/o my knick fan bias. I'm keeping it real, not what I want. I may have jumped the gun, but I saw his decline last year when he was teflon, and I was right in hindsight. I trust my eyes, not what these athletes say or what excuses fans make for them
... He really needs to loose some weight and doing extra excersises to strengthen his (lower) back.
