For Amar’e Stoudemire, “a while” means one game.
So Stoudemire said “without a doubt” he will play Saturday against Memphis after he sat out one game. That rest Wednesday in Milwaukee came after coach Mike Woodson announced Stoudemire would be out “a while” because of swelling in his thrice surgically repaired knee.
“Without a doubt, I’m ready to go,” Stoudemire said Friday. “I feel great. I have a few days of rest. … Just having a few days of rest will actually rejuvenate the legs a lot more and give me a chance to recuperate.”
Stoudemire took to Twitter after Woodson’s announcement.
“It’s kind of the deal of being in New York, any small hiccup begins to become massive,” he tweeted.
Stoudemire said he did so to claim he was healthy and reiterated he is not injured.
“That’s not the case at all,” Stoudemire said, stressing there was no lingering problem with Woodson. “There was no injury, nothing like that. Just a matter of resting. … It just happens throughout the league where you get a few days of rest.
“We talked afterwards. I think he thought it was something more, I’m not sure. But again, we cleared it up and everything is great,” said Stoudemire, who said a day off here and there would be valued, especially after back-to-backs sets.
“It just happened to be two back-to-backs, four games in five nights,” Stoudemire said. “It’s a little bit much going from limited minutes to no back-to-backs to two back-to-backs.
“We want to be [precautionary] still. We’re still very early in the year.”
Metta World Peace (sore left knee) is questionable. He did not practice Friday. … Toure’ Murry, who has an expanded role because of the injuries to Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni, also is questionable with an ankle sprain. That led Woodson to suggest he may employ a combo of J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony and Iman Shumpert at backup point.
Anthony welcomed the news of Stoudemire’s return. The Knicks had Tyson Chandler return Wednesday.
“The more bodies the better,” Anthony said. “Tyson being back really helped us out a lot. Amar’e coming back helps us out even more.”
Woodson said Chandler showed no ill effects of playing 37 minutes in his first game back from a fractured right leg.
“Which was kind of nice to see. He went through a full practice today, had a really good practice I thought,” Woodson said.
Anthony praised Duke star Jabari Parker, who had a big game against UCLA Thursday night, and said he can see the comparison to himself.
“I like him a lot,” Anthony said. “I can just see the upside and potential that he has. His style of play kind of reminds me of myself, the things that he can do. His mid-range game, there’s not too many who have a mid-range basketball game.
“It’s hard to teach. It’s hard to learn, so when you have it, that’s a special talent.”
The Knicks expressed their sympathy for Kobe Bryant who fractured a bone in his knee six games after returning from a torn Achilles.
“It’s sad man, I mean my brother, he went down again,” Anthony said. “ I know how hard he worked to get back. So hopefully this will make him that much more better.
“You can’t prevent an injury. It was a freak accident, just a sad situation to see him come back from one injury and have to deal with another.”
Stoudemire said “it’s going to be tough” for Bryant to get back to his glory level.
“I think at that age, playing 19 years in this league, I think it’s a little bit more strenuous on the body,” Stoudemire said.
Regarding minutes, Anthony reiterated he will do anything necessary to win but “Not 55 I won’t,” he said laughing. He played 55 minutes at Milwaukee.
Felton (hamstring) may have said he will play Monday against the Magic in Orlando, but Woodson was a little more cautious.
“I don’t know,” Woodson said. “He ran a little bit today, didn’t do any contact, so we’ve just got to take it a day at a time, see where he is.”