Why is anyone surprised by this? In the past few years Amar'e has reminded me of Eddy Curry 2.0 with more athleticism, a better diet and work ethic. The fact that he was able to play more than a month without injuring himself is the greatest miracle since the Hudson River airplane incident. The guy has always been as fragile as a light bulb. I wouldn't doubt that if Herb Williams were to suit up and play he could last longer than Amar'e.
The only person that deserves the blame for such a tragedy is Donnie Walsh. He was another GM in the long list of Knicks front office executives that was outsmarted by the other front office executives of the NBA. There are people that still praise him because he somehow put the Knicks under the salary cap but these people ignore the fact that he hired one of the worst coaches in the NBA, drafted Jordan Hill, traded Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford out of desperation, sent draft picks to Houston for Tracy Mcgrady, traded away David Lee for nothing and worst of all signed Amar'e Stoudemire to a contract that I doubt any team would have even given him.
This is the reality that we have to live with. Amar'e is going to be a man who will average between 15-30 games a season for the rest of his career. His career started falling apart before the Knicks signed him but many people didn't see this because all they wanted was for the Knicks to bring in a guy who would make them relevant.
I always understood that one of the dumbest moves that an NBA franchise could ever make is for them to sign a player that has a history of major injuries to a long term contract. When the Knicks gave Allan Houston his lucrative contract I thought I couldn't possibly see anything more ridiculous in my lifetime until Isiah Thomas broke the bank for Eddy Curry, even then I believed that the Knicks were struck by lightning twice until Donnie Walsh proved my hypothesis wrong in the summer of 2010.
The only option that I believe the Knicks have with Amar'e is the same option that they had with Eddy Curry and Jared Jeffries when they had about two years remaining on their contracts back in 2009. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be a very attractive expiring contract for many teams before the start of the 2014-15 campaign. By then, the Knicks have to look to get younger. The culture of overpaying players with injuries and trading for guys that are at the very end of their careers needs to come to an end. I believe that the chances of the Knicks becoming a better team in a couple of years through replacing everyone on their current roster minus Chandler, Melo and Shumpert are 50/50. Only time will tell though!