Amar’e Stoudemire has to be holding his breath yet again.

As anticipated, Carmelo Anthony thoroughly enjoyed the spotlight in his Madison Square Garden debut as a member of the New York Knicks.  Anthony finished the night with 27 points and 10 rebounds, as the home team triumphed 114-108.

But, in typical ‘Melo fashion, the newcomer was far from efficient – taking 25 field goal attempts in the process.  Fellow All-Star Stoudemire had the next highest number of shots – a mere 13.  Of course, Wednesday night was all about Anthony coming back home.  But against a team with only one true interior defender (Andrew Bogut), Stoudemire’s presence should have been more domineering.

However, it’s not like A-Stat hasn’t been taken for granted before.  In Phoenix, he was consistently on the trading block when the deadline came around.  The Suns knew they weren’t going to give him the money that he wanted.  In a nutshell, they didn’t treat him like a major impact player.  And after a deep playoff run last season, Steve Nash and company have been a mediocre mess this year. 

So far this season, Stoudemire has received nothing respect and admiration for the MVP-type effort that he gave for New York prior to Anthony’s arrival.  But if New York aspires to any level of long-term success, it must ensure that Stoudemire is not solely viewed as a secondary offensive option.  The Eastern Conference is loaded with All-Star caliber perimeter players, but the truly elite teams are able to establish some form of dominance from within the interior (outside of that team from South Beach, of course).  Orlando, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta all have inside ruggedness that balances out their level of perimeter skill. 

Anthony was the center of attention in the Garden on Wednesday night.

Of all of the interior options on the East’s best teams, Stoudemire trumps them all from a standpoint of offensive completeness.  Amar’e has shown the ability to attack the rim with ferocity and nail the free-throw line extended jumper – and, in fact, he has shown even more range than in prior seasons.

The bottom line is that we all understand the love fest with ‘Melo.  The New York native returns home to help elevate the hopes of the locals.  It’s a great story.

But if the Knicks are aspiring toward a happy ending, they had better not fail to realize that their resurgence began on the shoulders of Amar’e Stoudemire.

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