SH Blog: Myers says desperate times are over in Golden State, Howard intrigued by Rockets and Mavericks

• Unsatisfied with what transpired this season, Amare Stoudemire will talk about his future role with Mike Woodson, according to Ian Begley of ESPN New York: ” Amar’e Stoudemire said it was “tough” to sit on the bench in the second half of the Knicks’ season-ending loss to the Pacers.  “It’s never easy to sit there and watch. But again, it’s Coach’s decision,” Stoudemire said after playing 5:47 — all in the first half — and scoring two points in Game 6 on Saturday night… Stoudemire lamented the fact that he “never got the chance” to start alongside Chandler and Anthony this season. He said he plans to talk with Woodson and the coaching staff in the offseason about his role. “I think just the opportunity of allowing them to understand exactly what my style of play is and what I bring to the table is something that I think I’m going to have to sit down with Coach Woody and express to him,” Stoudemire said.”

• Jalen Rose explained in his Grantland podcast why he believes it’s okay for J.R. Smith to hit the clubs during the playoffs:

• Tyson Chandler struggled mightily against Roy Hibbert and the Indiana Pacers. Turns out, there was a pretty good reason, from Begley of ESPN: 

• Kobe Bryant had plenty of thoughts to share on twitter, including the notion that he might retire, what he thinks of Phil Jackson comparing him and Michael Jordan, the possibility of writing his own book, and the desire to keep Pau Gasol on the team: 

• Two brothers reported a beating from Damian Lillard’s entourage after taking a photo of him. According to them, Lillard instigated the situation, from KGW.com: “So I took a picture. And so Damian Lillard was upset that I took his picture, so when he turned around he’s like, “Did you just take my picture?” said Ulinwa. “And his entourage just turned around too and they’re like, ‘did you just take a picture of Damian Lillard?’ … and I said ‘Yeah, I did.’ And so I saw that he was clearly upset, they were upset and I was like, ‘Can I apologize to him? I’ll go up right now and apologize to him,’” the brother said. Within minutes, he says the discussion became an all-out fight which did not involve Lillard, but did involve others that the brothers believe were part of Lillard’s group. That’s when his brother Phil says he stepped in to help. “That’s my brother, don’t push him,” Philip Ulinwa recalled saying. “So then they start pushing me and one of the people in his entourage comes and strikes me on my face.” Philip Ulinwa says he was punched and kicked repeatedly, enough to break his nose and require stitches in his lip. “I’m getting hit from behind, I’m trying to fight the guy in front, trying to defend myself and there’s guys trying to hold me down,” said Ulinwa… “Damian Lillard basically instigated it, because he actually looked like he was going to go up to my brother and start fighting him.”

• Charles Barkley said Knicks fans wouldn’t be so depressed had they just listened to him, from Begley of ESPN: “”If you guys had listened to me six months ago you wouldn’t be so depressed today,” Barkley said Monday on “The Mike Lupica Show” on ESPN NY 98.7 FM. “I told you, I said three things: No. 1, those old geezers can’t stay healthy, which happened. You can’t keep shooting 3’s like that. The biggest problem they got, they can’t rebound the ball. They got a little bit better when Kenyon Martin came along but that was going to be the thing that always came back to (hurt them).”… “You’ve got to be able to rebound the ball man, you can’t get hammered night after night because, what happens, it puts so much pressure on your jump-shooting,” said Barkley, a longtime Knicks antagonist.”

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