In a press conference Wednesday, New York Knicks’ star Amar’e Stoudemire aimed to set the record straight on his glass-shattering incident.
The frustrated All-Star slashed his left hand while punching a fire extinguisher Monday night after the Knicks fell to 0-2 against the Miami Heat in the NBA Playoffs series. Stoudemire had surgery on Tuesday, which many speculate will end his season.
But the 6’11” power forward is optimistic of his future and plans to participate in Game 4 on Sunday.
“I think there’s a great chance [but] I’m not totally, totally sure yet. I’ll be back soon,” he told reporters. “[...] I’ve persevered through a lot of injuries and worked hard to recover from injuries.”
Stoudemire has received much criticism from fans and sports analysts for his poor judgement, but he claims they have the wrong idea on what really happened.
He said:
“We‘re down 0-2 and I knew how important it was to get a win in Miami. We played somewhat well enough to win Game 2. I was more frustrated we were down 0-2. It wasn’t like I was trying to take out the fire extinguisher door. I wanted to make noise and let out frustration.
Fans actually think I had a closed fist and punched through that glass door. They have [the] wrong perception of what happened. I walked by and swung my arm backwards it hit [the] fire extinguisher door and I slashed my hand by accident.’’
I just walked by the door and it’s made of 85 percent metal and 2 percent strip of glass. I didn’t try to hit the glass. I walked by and hit my hand on the wall. I didn’t see the strip of glass.’’
Stoudemire apologized after Monday’s game via Twitter stating, “We all have done thing [sic] out of anger that we regret. That makes us human. Bad timing on my part. Sorry guys. This to shall pass.”
Knicks coach Mike Woodson said “it’s up to the doctors” if Stoudemire will be ready to suit up for Sunday’s game.