Though the biggest Knicks related news today probably comes from CBS Sports’ Ken Berger floating the possibility of Kobe Bryant opting out of his $25 million salary in LA to become a restricted free agent and sign with New York (œ’He™s definitely in the mix,’ one GM told me recently. ‘What if they don™t win it this year and what if he™s [ticked] off at Dr. Buss for not re-signing Phil Jackson or he™s sick of playing with whoever and he says, ˜You know what? I™m gonna go put on a New York Knick jersey.™ All of sudden he and Mike D™Antoni hook up in New York and they can talk some Italian.'”), the following item from the Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro comes a close second. It seems the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire (above) claims he once attended a high school football game starring Tracy McGrady’s brother, and sought counsel from the (at the time) Orlando star. Coro transcribed the bickering prior to New York being routed in Phoenix last night.
“I’m not a huge Tracy McGrady fan,” Stoudemire said.
As a person or player?
“Both,” he said.
Why?
“I tried to reach out to him one time before in high school, really to get some advice on going from high school to the NBA, and he pretty much didn’t say anything,” he said. “So I look at myself now being successful in the NBA, if a kid from my hometown was to come up to me and say, ‘Yo, Amar’e. I’m thinking about going out of high school.’ I would say, ‘Well, you know what, it’s a tough process. College is very important. Education is very important.’ So forth and so on. I didn’t get any of that. I just went off my instinct.”
McGrady not only disputed that such an exchange occurred but said he never went to a high school football game while he was a Magic player and that his brother did not play football. He said he did have a phone conversation on the topic with Stoudemire and watched Stoudemire play against his brother’s team.
“That’s a made-up story,” McGrady said.
In turn, Stoudemire said McGrady was lying.