The signs of the season are everywhere you look. The leaves are almost completely off of the trees, it's getting dark way too early, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is about to hit the airwaves and of course, the Knicks have started their annual nosedive.
That nosedive, the one that seems to come earlier and earlier every season, is underway and according to the New York Daily News, new Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire is not very happy about it.
Stoudemire, who signed a $100-million contract this summer with the Knicks, has had it up to here with an ugly New York start that has the team back in its recently customary spot near the Eastern Conference's cellar.
"This is foreign land for me," Stoudemire said of the team's recent five-game skid after the Knicks' 104-96 loss to the Rockets on Sunday."I don't understand why we're not playing with the urgency. I'm not used to it. … It's almost as if it doesn't matter."
Despite having his former Suns coach Mike D'Antoni calling the shots in New York, Stoudemire speculated that perhaps the environment in the New York locker room and organization is the problem.
"Maybe," he wondered, "it's the fact that the winning mentality has never been here. I'm used to winning. Used to talking about winning. We just can't have guys complacent and comfortable with losing. I keep saying that."
Despite apparently forgetting the fact that no team he has played on has ever reached the NBA Finals, Stoudemire is at least doing his part to back up his words so far this season. Following Sunday's loss, Stoudemire is averaging over 20 points and eight rebounds per contest in his first season with the Knickerbockers.
