Former NBA-star O’Neal believes that Anthony and Stoudemire need to be more assertive if they want to be successful.
The New York Knicks have been a promising team in the past few years but that is all there has been to it as they have failed to establish themselves as one of the contenders in the Eastern Conference.
There is no doubt that they have enough talent present on the roster with players like Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony who are more than capable of leading the team into a deep playoff run. However, their failure to gel together
as a unit and perform consistently has been one of the main reasons for their setbacks. They might have done well to qualify for the playoffs as they did last season but that is not good enough for a team with so much promise.
And one former NBA star, Shaquille O’Neal believes that they have to do better if they want to be considered genuine contenders.
"They've done OK. But in New York, OK is not good enough," O'Neal said. "In order to have a legitimate 1-2 punch, OK is not good enough.”
They have shown promise but that is not good enough anymore. So what do the likes of Stoudemire and Anthony needs to do in order for the Knicks to be successful? Well, O’Neal also had a few pointers for the two All-stars.
"I think when Carmelo plays against LeBron (James) and (Dwyane Wade), he should take it personally, like he's always talked about last (among the three). When Amare plays against (Chris) Bosh, he should take it personally," O'Neal
said. "That's what I always used to do. I played against guys, I used to take it personally that you're not talking about me. They need to do that. In order to beat Miami, they've got to."
O’Neal may have been successful with his approach to take players personally during his illustrious career which saw him bag 4 NBA Championships.
With all these players being friends, especially Anthony and James, who just won a gold medal at the London Olympics, taking things personally, will be a hard thing. But one thing for sure, that Anthony and Stoudemire need to start
playing together for results to start showing for the team.
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