Amare Stoudemire is struggling with the New York Knicks. He's putting up career low numbers in field goal percentage (.457) and his turnovers are way up. It goes without saying that being the biggest star on the New York Knicks comes with different pressures than playing with Steve Nash in Phoenix. Instead of being spoon-fed dunk opportunities, Amare is being asked to carry his team and create much of his own offense. We've seen that movie before.

What is surprising, at least to Amare, is that all NBA teams don't have the same chemistry and work ethic as the Suns teams he's been a part of. In a move that I am sure Amare feels is "leadership-y," he publicly called out his Knicks team for lack of effort.

"I'm not sure if it's the fact maybe a winning mentality has never been here. I'm just not used to it. I'm used to winning. I'm used to talking about winning and having that confidence toward winning. You just can't have guys complacent and comfortable with losing.

"I don't understand why we're not playing with the urgency. I'm not used to that. We're not playing like we're on a four-game losing streak, now five. We don't have that sense of urgency. It's almost as if it doesn't matter."

Tough road for Amare, but it's one of his own making. It's not as if he didn't know the Knicks were bad when he picked them over staying in Phoenix for less guaranteed money. 

Oh, and just because the New York media (who are worse than commenters on blogs) dream up some kind of trade scenario that brings Steve Nash or Carmelo Anthony or Michael Jordan to the center of the universe -- New York -- doesn't mean it's going to happen or even has any degree of truth at all. I make it a habit to ignore most stories that originate from any news outlet with the words "New York" in the name, especially when "Daily News" or "Post" are also present.