ESPN is reporting that the New York Knicks have reached a deal with NBA superstar Amare Stoudemire. The five year deal is worth $99.7 million dollars and will have Stoudemire reunited with his former coach Mike D’Antoni. The deal will be signed on Thursday.
“The fact that Amare really wanted to come here and stepped up front, it got to the point that we had to acknowledge that,” team president Donnie Walsh said. “That means something to us.”
Amare isn’t the only star the Knicks are after. Both Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are being eyed by the Knicks. The Knicks think that acquiring Amare will help persuade LeBron to come to New York since last February LeBron wanted Amare to play on the Cavs with him. Stoudemire spoke out about LeBron and said:
“I’m definitely going to reach out to him again and see if we can get him to come. I really have no reading on which way he is leaning at all, but again, he’s totally open right now, he hasn’t made a decision yet, and hopefully I can get him to choose us,” Stoudemire said.
The Knicks are now removed from the running for Chris Bosh and their chances of signing David Lee have been drastically reduced. As for LeBron, he’s obviously the most sought after player right now and he has yet to make a decision as to where he will end up playing. For now though, the Knicks are remaining cautiously optimistic that they have a good shot of signing him.
