Nine months ago, New York let alone the nation did not know the name Jeremy Lin. He was a free agent guard out of Harvard University who was just trying to make it in the NBA. He had been cut twice by the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets. On Dec. 27, 2011 he was claimed off waivers to be the back up point guard to Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby. In his first game action of the season, he made a loud introduction to the NBA nation with a 25-point seven assist performance in a come from behind 99-92 win over the then cross town rival New Jersey Nets. From that point on the Knicks went from an underachieving team to back in playoff contention and Lin would be the toast of New York and the nation. When their team became whole again with the return of the likes of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, Lin would not be their for the postseason because of knee surgery. From that point, his future was up in the air. While he was a restricted free agent, the question was would the Knicks match any offer that he got from any other suitors. Last week that question was answered.
In the late part of Tuesday July 17, the Jeremy Lin era came to an end when the Knicks did not match the 3-year $25.1 million offer sheet from the Rockets. Lin returned to the team that cut him back on Dec. 24, 2011
The first year of the contract will pay the former Harvard grad $5 million and the second year will pay $5.2 million and the third year will pay about $14.89 million.
The Knicks announced their decision about Lin at about 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, 90 minutes before the deadline.
Lin told Sports Illustrated.com that he “preferred New York, but my main goal in free agency was to go to a team that had plans for me and wanted me.”
One of the big questions out of the gate is how can a player, who again was a restricted free agent and the Knicks had a serious crack at resigning him, who breathed life back in the Garden and showed signs of being one of those needles in a hay stack type of players be gone in an instant.
The first place to start is with the Rockets. They are the ones who changed the original terms of the contract which was a 3-year $19.5 million deal that paid $9.3 million in the final season of the contract.
On top of that, the Knicks signed in free agency veteran floor general Jason Kidd and in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers acquires point guard Raymond Felton. If that were not enough, the team also signs 35-year-old Argentine guard Pablo Prigioni.
It is hard to fathom that this man who is just the 13th athlete to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated two issues in succession and the first from a New York professional team, who was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and who on the court averaged in 25 starts 18.2 ppg and 7.7 apg could be gone just like that. This is especially tough considering that just a week ago, head coach Mike Woodson, who replaced head coach Mike D’Antoni in the middle of last season, said he “absolutely expected Lin to return to the team. He even said that Lin would be the starting point guard going into training camp.
You also have to consider this. The New York Knicks in the last few seasons, particularly in the James Dolan era, they have had no problem spending money and paying players more than what they are worth.
So it is hard to believe that the Knicks would not take on the nearly $15 million they would have to pay in the third year of Lin’s contract and the $28 million luxury-tax penalty which is part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that was signed this past season, though it probably did play a major factor.
What probably had more legs to this story about the worth of Lin more than anything is when Anthony called the Lin’s offer sheet from the Rockets “ridiculous” and when guard/forward J.R. Smith told Sports Illustrated.com that if Lin returned to the team his contract would have caused division, jealousy and chemistry issues in the locker room.
Let’s remember though, this Asian American sensation is the reason the Knicks even had a shot at the postseason to begin with. He again brought life back to Madison Square Garden. Also during that time, the team was without both Anthony and Stoudemire because of injury.
When he went against the best the NBA had to offer he delivered in a huge way.
In his first career start on Feb. 6, he scored 28 points and dished out eight assists in a 99-88 victory versus the Utah Jazz.
Four days later he scored a career-high 38 points in a 92-85 win versus the Los Angeles Lakers. He outscored the great Kobe Bryant 38 to 34.
On Valentines’s Day, he showed a lot of love to Knicks fans and broke the hearts of the Toronto Raptors when he capped his 27-point night with a game-winning three-pointer from the top of the key that gave the team a 90-87 win.
After the game D’Antoni told the press, “I’m glad it went like this so we can calm Lin-sanity down.”
The beat would still go on and it just kept getting better as before a national television audience on Sunday afternoon Feb. 19, Lin scored 28 points, dished out 14 assists in a career-high 45 minutes as the Knicks came from behind to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 104-97 to improve to a 7-1 record with Lin in the starting lineup.
In the midst of the Knicks rise from the ashes, Lin made some history. He became the first player in NBA history to score at least 20 points and pass for seven assists in his first seven starts.
Unfortunately when you are on a role like Lin was, eventually you come back down to reality.
In his second go around with Deron Williams and the Nets, Williams scored 38 points in the Nets 100-92 win.
At the eventual NBA champion Miami Heat, Lin scored just eight points, dishing out just three assists and going 1 for 11 from the field in a 102-88 loss.
On Mar. 24, Lin would be forced to leave the Knicks contest against the Detroit Pistons because of soreness in his left knee. He would not play for the remainder of that week.
Seven days later, his season would be over as the team announced that their savior of the season would need surgery to repair a tear in the meniscus of his left knee.
While he did appear close to returning for the playoffs, declaring himself “85 percent” healthy, he did not feel at all comfortable playing so he was a spectator as the Knicks lost to the Heat in the first-round 4-1.
In his 35 appearances of the 2011-12 NBA campaign Lin averaged 14.6 ppg, 6.2 apg and 3.5 turnovers per contest.
The question now is where do the Rockets and Knicks go from here?
According to Felton, he is very eager to return to the form that he was in his first go around with the Knicks where he averaged career highs of 17.1 ppg, nine assists and 1.8 steals per contest in 54 games before being involved in the Anthony trade that brought him to the “Big Apple” and sent Felton to the Denver Nuggets.
“I wish him the best of luck,” Felton said in reference to Lin during an interview with the MSG Network during a Knicks‘ summer league broadcast.
“I’m not here to get into, ‘He’s getting way too much money.’ I hear a lot of people are saying this and saying that. I feel like if you can go get the money, go get it. So I’m not going to be the one who says that. But at the same time, I’m a competitor. I’m a point guard just like he is. So do I think I’m better? Of course I’m going to say that. I think I’m better than any point guard. There’s nothing personal between me and Jeremy. I know everybody is going to try to make it that way, and if it ends up being that way, then so be it. I’ll be ready for the challenge.”
At his introductory press conference last Thursday, Lin reiterated how he never thought that he would see himself anywhere else but in New York, but that when the 2012-13 season starts he will be wearing a new jersey number, No. 7 and he will be with the team that cut him on Christmas Eve and paved his way to the Knicks and the rest is history.
“Coming into free agency, I didn’t expect to be anywhere besides New York,” Lin said last Thursday.
“But after I came and visited… I wouldn’t have signed an offer sheet with Houston if I wasn’t excited about playing here as well. I’m so thankful to New York and the Knicks for this past year and the way the fans rooted for us. I’m thankful for what they did for me. Now I’m excited and focused on what I can do to help this organization move forward.
Lin also addressed how he felt about the recent comments made by Anthony and Smith about his new contract.
“I love Carmelo and J.R.,” Lin said. “I never had any issues with them…They were very supportive and they were great teammates last year.”
Jeremy Lin did a number of things a year ago. He made his dream of playing in the NBA a reality. He breathed life back into the basketball team in the “city that never sleeps.” He had a setback that did not allow him or the nation to see how he would do in the second season. He used an opportunity to increase his earnings in the future, thanks to the economic skills he learned as an economics major at Harvard and now has given himself a nice three-year contract and a chance to continue his dream of playing basketball and to continue to make an impact on Asian in the United States.
For the Knicks their future, which is all about winning a title will be lead by a point guard in Raymond Felton who will be trying to get back to the form that had him being considered an all-star two seasons ago. A point guard in Jason Kidd who can bring stability whether as a starter or coming off the bench and a Argentine guard in Pablo Prigioni who we really do not know how he will be used.
One team is building for the future in the Houston Rockets. The other in the New York Knicks is trying to win now. Who will be on top. Only time will tell. The best part is, we will have the next three years to see it all unfold.
Information, quotations and statistics are courtesy of 7/18/12 4 p.m. edition of ESPN 2’s “Numbers Never Lie” with Michael Smith, Hugh Douglas and Jalen Rose; Wednesday, 7/18/12 edition of Newsday, article entitled “Knicks Say So Long to Lin” by Al Iannazzone; Friday, 7/20/12 edition of Newsday, article entitled “Felton: I’m Better” by Roderick Boone; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Felton; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Lin.
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