Amar'e branches out; rookie Faried shows early promise

There's no locker room time being logged right now, so Stoudemire is avoiding the ribbings that his teammates would almost certainly dole out as a result of his, um, eclectic taste. They'll get their chance soon, though, as Stoudemire is in the process of planning the unofficial Knicks training camp that will take place at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., in September.

"As soon as I get cleared [medically], as soon as my back gets strong, I'm going to call all the guys and structure a training camp," he said. "I'll have them all meet at IMG, put them all in apartments, feed them breakfast and lunch -- they're on their own for dinner.

"My guys are waiting on me. They're texting me all the time, saying, 'When are we going to work out?' But I'm still kind of in neutral right now with the back injury."

Stoudemire will be in China later this month, touring with Nike and promoting other companies with which he is partnering. He isn't considering international offers to play in large part because of the back issue.

"I'm just going to rest," said Stoudemire, played only 18 minutes in Game 2 against the Celtics because of the back and averaged just 14.5 points on 38.2 percent shooting in the four games. "What's happening right now [with the injury and labor situation] is kind of a gift and a curse for me. I'm having a good time, but the curse is that I want to play so bad that I want to try to get something done [on the labor front]."

As for playing in China, former Knicks guard Stephon Marbury said recently that he didn't think Stoudemire or teammate Carmelo Anthony could handle the grind in the Far East. Stoudemire, not surprisingly, disagreed when told for the first time of Marbury's comments.

"I'm from the streets of [central Florida's] Polk County, man, so I grew up playing rough," Stoudemire said. "I don't think it's that bad over there. I think China is a rising country as far as basketball concerned."

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Speaking of male models ...

NBA journeyman point guard/Drew League regular Marcus Banks was the unwitting object of hoops humor at the MIT Sloan Conference in March, when Rockets general manager Daryl Morey told an unflattering story about him in discussing the topic of players who never reached their potential.

Banks, the UNLV product who was Boston's No. 13 pick in 2003 when Morey was with the Celtics, had allegedly answered a question about his life aspirations in his predraft interview by saying that he wanted to be a male model. The comment quickly spread on the Internet via social media, and Banks -- the career reserve who has played with five teams in eight seasons -- called Morey not long after to voice his displeasure.

"I called him that same day," Banks said. "I don't even know where that would come from as far as me quitting basketball and going into modeling. First of all, I'm not that kind of guy. [Basketball] is first priority, second priority, third priority for me as far as what I'm going to do outside of my family. I never ever thought in my life that I wanted to be a model.

"I told him, 'I don't understand why you would say that.' I did a couple things as far as [getting] some incentives modeling suits -- Banana Republic, Polo -- stuff like that. But at the end of the day, it ended up in the magazine and that was that. There never was an interest of mine to pursue modeling."

Morey later apologized for the remark on his Twitter account, and Banks said the issue was resolved quickly.

"We squashed it," he said. "He probably worded [his comments] wrong. But at the end of the day, I'm the one that looks bad. We talked about it and it was absolutely nothing."

Banks, 29, was traded from Toronto to New Orleans last November but never played for the Hornets while stuck behind Chris Paul and Jarrett Jack. He is weighing his international options in lieu of the lockout and still sees plenty of basketball in his future.

"The sky is the limit," he said. "I've still at least got a good nine to 10 [years] in me, including the last four overseas. I just love basketball. It doesn't matter where I play, I just want to enjoy it and enjoy my family while I'm doing it."