The Greatest Man in the East

All last season, there was no "Amar'e Countdown" or "Amar'e Watch" in the New York papers. The fans didn't chant his name or drop on bended knee when his team, the Suns, played at the Garden. And when it came time to sign free agents last summer, he was far enough down the wish list that you needed to borrow his goggles to find him.

No, he wasn't The One They Wanted. Or even The Two They Wanted.

But after a franchise-record nine-straight 30-point game, and an MVP-like start, New Yorkers are glad to have him. Even better for the Knicks and their fans: Amar'e Stoudemire wanted New York, and how many free agents in any sport would gladly walk into the snakepit that he did?

Well, yes, the money helps. A lot. One hundred extra-large is enough to convince anyone to play anywhere and for any team -- even for the Clippers. Let's be clear about that. And yet, this is New York, which can be cruel, and these were the Knicks, desperate for a savior and by extension, a scapegoat if the misery continued. This wasn't a situation for the meek.

Apparently, it's a situation made for Stoudemire.

"This was the plan," Stoudemire said. "The plan was to have success."
Stoudemire isn't the answer to the whole puzzle, but a generous piece that the Knicks needed to become relevant again. With a 16-10 record, and a hunch that if nothing else the Dark Decade is over, the Garden is noisy again. Knicks games are an event; Wednesday night's thriller with the Celtics certainly was, and Friday's visit by Miami will certainly be. And there's someone worth paying to see, for the first time since Patrick Ewing.
"There's a reason he's balling this season," said Nene, the Nuggets' center. "Nobody's stopping him."
He came a split-second away from a special moment when he barely missed beating the Celtics with a game-winning 3-pointer Wednesday. Still, he was the best player on the floor, scoring 39 points with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Not even Ewing had a run like this, which is why there's a basketball awakening in New York.

Stoudemire so far has dismissed two myths: That he'd be less of a player without Steve Nash around, and that he couldn't elevate a dormant team. Instead, he's playing the best of his career away from Nash, averaging 26.2 points (up five points from his career average) and is having as good a season, if not better, than anyone in the NBA. That's including LeBron James, the player the Knicks and New York wanted last summer. That puts Stoudemire in the early conversation for MVP and the Knicks in the running for a top-5 finish in the East.