While many Knicks fans would love for Amar’e Stoudemire to exercise his early termination option, it’s no surprise that he will opt-in and collect his final $23.4 million of his $100 million contract.
via CSNNW.com:
As most suspected, New York Knicks power forward Amar’e Stoudemire has declined to exercise his early termination option and will return to the Knicks for the 2014-15 season to finish out the final year of his five-year, $100 million deal, a league source informed CSNNW.com.
“He is opting in,” said the source that spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has yet to be made. If he had chose to exercise his ETO, he would have become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Stoudemire has made it very clear that he wants to remain with the Knicks and while it’s pretty certain he’ll be gone in 2015, he made sure to opt-in for his final year. Plagued with knee and back injuries, Stoudemire’s production has taken a significant fall. Ironically it was Stoudemire who helped bring Carmelo Anthony here and it’s Stoudemire that could be the reason Melo leaves. Anthony has made it clear that he wants to win now but the Knicks don’t have any cap space to get him significant help especially with STAT still on the books. It’s that reason why Jackson is trying to convince Anthony to opt-in as well so that in 2015 the books will be clean and they can start fresh.
