Stoudemire: We Never Bought Into the System

As the Knicks cleaned out their lockers while 16 other teams got ready for the playoffs, Amar’e Stoudemire had no problem discerning why his squad wasn’t among them. It wasn’t a lack of talent but a lack of leadership, an unwillingness to buy into what beleaguered Mike Woodson had been teaching.

“It was an up-and-down year, midseason changes, coach Woodson put together a game plan on both ends of the basketball court and there were times that we didn’t totally buy into it,’’ Stoudemire said after Thursday’s exit interview with team president Phil Jackson.

“We didn’t really focus on mastering the offensive strategies and defensive strategies,” Stoudemire said. “The mind-set is for us whatever the game plan is, we have to stick to the game plan. We’ve got to try to master it, and that way we can be playing at an extremely high level when it’s time for the postseason.’’

via Brian Lewis of the New York Post