Amar'e Stoudemire Injury: Amar'e Doesn't Need to Apologize for Self-Mutilation

A man shreds his hand, and hand-wringing ensues. People are tut-tutting Amar'e all over the land for his "immature" act of rage.

My thought? Who among us hasn't kicked or punched something in anger? It happens. Emotion takes a hold of you and an inanimate object gets it. Unfortunately for Stoudemire, this particular object could defend itself.

So now we have a scenario where many Knicks fans are happy to see the underperforming star sidelined, yet media-types demand that Stoudemire exceed his Twitter penance and wax a bit more shame-filled.

The message essentially is: "Amar'e, apologize better for being injured to those who celebrate your injury!" Apparently, he was not properly bow-scraping enough in today's press conference when he deemed the injury an "accident."

The apology plea has become a ridiculous tradition in our media culture. I personally don't get it. I can't remember one celebrity apology that made me whole.

Who is this person who desperately needs Tiger Woods to express remorse over adultery or Stoudemire to express regret over hand-suicide? Just because these people are on TV doesn't mean that you know them, or that you're owed anything other than the television channels you've paid to see them on.

It makes especially little sense in the case of Amar'e, because he obviously didn't want this to happen. The incident resulted from his frustration and passion for the game; it wasn't as though this was some evil plot that a dogged reporter uncovered in the Knicks' locker room.   

Let us have some perspective here. The Knicks weren't going anywhere this season.

Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire do not mesh well together for structural reasons, and improved play from STAT would only mitigate a situation that cannot be fixed. This bloody hand matters a lot less than the bad dynamic.