It became a story as the Heat blew past the Knicks in the first round of the NBA playoffs, on their way to an NBA title.
Walking off the court after a Game 2 loss, the Knicks Amare Stoudemire was frustrated and hit a fire extinguisher case, leaving lacerations in his hands that caused him to miss the next two games.
Well… he wasn’t frustrated. Not if you ask Stoudemire. Which the guys at FOX Sports Radio Daybreak did and he told them how everyone just misunderstood what happened. (Via Sports Radio Interviews)
“It wasn’t a punch at all actually. It was more like a slap against the wall, but I caught the edge of the fire extinguisher. Some people think I balled my fist up and punched through a glass fire extinguisher, which is totally opposite of the truth. It was more like a smack against the wall, kind of a backhand or a reach back slap across the wall and caught the edge of the fire extinguisher. I think a lot of people confused my passion with frustration. I’m such a passionate player. I want to win so bad to where sometimes I want to win, so I bring my passion and it gets confused with frustration.”
My take: It didn’t really matter. If Stoudemire plays, if Jeremy Lin was healthy and played, the result would have been the same. The Heat were the superior side.
But it wasn’t the smartest thing a passionate player can do.
By the way, here is what Stoudemire said about Jeremy Lin (you know, a point guard who could run the pick-and-roll with him):
“Jeremy had a great 15 or 20 games when he played. Those were some pretty phenomenal games and what he did out there was…you can’t take nothing from him, so the hype was well deserved. I mean he really played well for us and he put us back in the playoff mind frame. It was great to watch.”
