From offseason back surgery to his brother's death to his injury via fire extinguisher during the first round of the playoffs, last season was "the toughest year of my career," according to Amare Stoudemire. However, heading into 2012/13, he feels "phenomenal," as he tells Zach Braziller of the New York Post. In Braziller's piece and in an interview on KNBR in San Francisco (link via Sports Radio Interviews), the Knicks forward discussed the offseason and the coming year. Here are a few of his more notable comments:
On working out with former MVP Hakeem Olajuwon this summer:
"There’s so many moves that I picked up from Hakeem. Just developing my post [game] has been phenomenal for me. When I came out of high school, I was thrown the ball and [told], 'Do what you do best.' I never got a chance to develop my game as far as [in the] post. Working with Hakeem is going to be a great advantage for me."
On how the departure of Jeremy Lin affects the Knicks:
"Jeremy had a great run for us. He uplifted us a lot last season. To see him leave… it’s never fun to see one of your teammates leave, but again that’s the name of the game. It happens all the time, but the front office did a great job of bringing in players to improve the team and we are looking pretty good."
On new Knicks point guard Raymond Felton:
"Raymond’s going to be awesome. He’s going to be great for us. He’s a player that wants to improve. He always talks about getting better."
On whether it was a surprise to see Dwight Howard leave the Eastern Conference:
"It wasn’t. I figured something was going to happen. There was a lot of talk between Dwight going somewhere else, so we knew something was going to happen. I just hope that his back is healed up and he’s able to come back full strength."
On the Knicks' prospects for 2012/13:
"Training camp is very, very key for us. We get full training camp, get that chemistry down, we’re going to be golden."