(I promise: We’re going to talk about other stuff soon. Hang in there.)
We got the New York Knicks’ side of the decision not to match the offer sheet that Jeremy Lin signed with the Houston Rockets on Wednesday morning, thanks to tabloid beat man Frank Isola of the New York Daily News . Isola reported that the Knicks declined to bring back the restricted free-agent point guard, in part, because owner James Dolan felt “betrayed” and “deceived” by Lin agreeing to a restructured three-year, $25.1 million deal that would have been much more financially onerous for New York to equal than the four-year, $28.8 million sheet initially floated by the Rockets, which the Knicks said they would match.
Whether or not you think there’s any validity to the owner’s feelings — and, y’know, I don’t — that’s the spin coming out of Madison Square Garden. We didn’t bring the kid back because the kid’s a no-good traitor. Well, we got the no-good traitor’s side of the story on Wednesday afternoon, thanks to Pablo S. Torre of Sports Illustrated .
Shortly after the Knicks announced they wouldn’t match and Lin officially became a Rocket, Torre spoke with the 23-year-old point guard about where he is, how he got there and where he’d have liked to be: “Honestly, I preferred New York.”
Jul 182012