I had an interaction last night with a great Knick fan and long time season ticket holder. He said to me flat out if this Jeremy Lin talk is true, he’s canceling his tickets.
Fans love Jeremy Lin.
I scout basketball as another hobby and I’ve studied the position of point guard for over 25 years. I like Lin the player, but I have my doubts with him in Mike Woodson’s system. I don’t believe he’s a sure-fire can’t miss talent that so many teams missed on. I never understood what took him so long to recover from what the team called a “slight” meniscus tear. I don’t understand why he’s cheering on the summer league team, heck even Baron Davis is. I’ve said all along that Mike Woodson isn’t sold.
Basketball isn’t baseball but let me make this analogy. Lin could be a hall of famer or he can be Kevin Maas. Maas stepped in for Don Mattingly in 1990 when Donnie Baseball was hurt and had an all-time run as a young player. He was the fastest player to hit 10 home runs in the history of baseball. Some Yankee fans thought the unthinkable of actually trading Mattingly because of his back and the fact that Maas was younger.
Maas was released in 1994 because pitchers figured him out and the pressure to be the next great Yankee was too much. Simply put, he wasn’t that good.
Again, I’m not saying Lin is Kevin Maas or a flash in the pan, I’m simply saying he COULD be and the Knicks are deciding that paying him doesn’t make basketball sense. How about the locker room? Lin sat and didn’t risk further injury and watched two of his teammates have devastating knee injuries. Lin chose business. Who can really blame him? Not me, but maybe that had an impact on the locker room.
And doesn’t mean that Jeremy Lin — who outed himself as a clever manipulator of the system the past few weeks, not anything close to the pie-eyed innocent he portrayed himself during the teeth of Linsanity — is worth crazy, absurd, ridiculous money. At the end of the day, the Knicks made a basketball decision and not a marketing decision. Which is exactly the way it should be.
Let me take you on the journey yesterday.
I’ve been chasing the Dwight Howard story because I have information on it. One of the teams that keeps being mentioned in the Howard deal is the Rockets and yesterday I learned that they were on the outside looking in as the Cavs and the Lakers have been engaged in a three way deal to send Howard to Los Angeles.
The Rockets have gone all in on the Howard deal and if they don’t get him then what’s the next play? The contract for Lin allows for them to have a good young point guard who can sell jerseys for them. They need that with or without Howard.
What I don’t understand from the Knicks standpoint is how can they just let him walk? How can they get nothing in return? It’s a simple and firm position and one that I don’t get paid to answer. Letting a player walk for nothing is the essence of free agency. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
As of last night this is real. Lin is a goner and I’m waiting on some information from Las Vegas. The Knicks have time to match, but they’ve been clear on not hiring Phil Jackson and they’ve been firm on keeping Mike Woodson moving forward. This sounds like it’s real.
I may be wrong but I don’t expect Jeremy Lin to be in a Knicks jersey next season.