The New York Knicks made everyone anxiously wait for their decision on Jeremy Lin. I haven’t seen so many will they/won’t they moments since Ross and Rachel sucked the life out of “Friends”.
New York finally made their decision and opted not to match the offer sheet that Jeremy Lin signed with the Houston Rockets.
Lin, 23, will receive $25.1 million over three years, a price the Knicks couldn’t see as the correct value for the point guard phenom.
Houston was sneaky and their offer sheet included a back-loaded contract that would have paid Lin $14.8 million in the third year of the contract. The Knicks would have been over the luxury tax and cost them nearly $43 million in salary + “repeat offender” luxury tax.
Lin came out yesterday and said that he would have loved to finish his career as a member of the New York Knicks. It’s the politically correct thing to say, but it was sincere. Lin was a borderline NBA player before he found himself in New York.
Jeremy Lin didn’t need his Harvard education to know that signing Houston’s offer sheet was the smartest decision he could make. No one can blame Lin for signing it. He had a very exciting six-week run last year before injuring his knee. He had a few moments of vulnerability, most notably a 1-11 shooting night against the Miami Heat. A $25 million dollar offer might not be there in a few seasons.
Carmelo Anthony’s comments earlier this week about Lin’s offer sheet being a ‘ridiculous’ amount of money didn’t help the situation. Lin had most of his success when Anthony was injured and one would have to believe that jealousy could have lead to that comment. If Lin had stayed, he would have taken away from Anthony’s spotlight.
The Knicks wouldn’t have been able to pay him near the $8 million annually that Houston will pay him. His marketability will be hurt by not staying in New York, but Yao Ming did very well as a member of the Rockets.
Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowy already out of town. The core players on the team are very young. Royce White, Terrence Jones, and Jeremy Lamb will be contributing right away as rookies (if they aren’t moved in an escalated attempt to sign Dwight Howard…ugh).
The Rockets will be Lin’s team. I look forward to watching them in 2012-13…they will be a lot of fun.
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Carmelo Anthony did the whole recruiting tour this off-season. He visited Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles (among others) and each team pulled out the red carpet. It was a long shot he would sign anywhere other than back in New York, but I’m sure he got some free meals out of it.
