Amar’e Stoudemire loves New York, just not as much as Phoenix.
Stoudemire signed a one-day contract Tuesday so he could retire as a Knick, but what the 33-year-old truly wanted was to finish where his career started — in Phoenix with the Suns.
It turns out the feelings were not mutual.
“The last two years, we made phone calls to Phoenix, but I wasn’t getting any positive response,” Stoudemire told azcentral.com Thursday. “That would’ve been the perfect way to go out. I didn’t want to beg Phoenix. My heart was in two places — Phoenix and New York. I just went where I was wanted.”
Stoudemire spent the first eight of his 14 NBA years in Phoenix, where he experienced the bulk of his success. One of the most dominant power forwards of his era, five of Stoudemire’s six All-Star appearances came with the Suns.
After signing a $99.7 million deal with the Knicks in 2010, Stoudemire declared, “The Knicks are back!’’ Bad knees, however, never let him completely back up those words. He averaged 25.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in his first year at the Garden, but the 6-foot-10 one-time Rookie of the Year soon became overshadowed as the club’s franchise player by Carmelo Anthony.
Stoudemire played four years with the Knicks before agreeing to a buyout in February 2015, when he signed with the Mavericks. He spent his final season with Miami.