By now, you may have read Dolan's comments that he felt "betrayed" and "deceived" by the fact that Jeremy would sign the modified Rockets' offer. What a load of . . . . well, let's just say it rhymes with "rap."
Well, now Jeremy has had a chance to tell his side of the story. Makes a lot of sense to me.
Look, the point is this: if Dolan really had wanted Jeremy, why didn't he make an offer up front? Why wait for Jeremy to get an offer from another team? An offer that many, including this site, predicted would contain the type of poison pill that Dolan was so insulted by? Also, given the lack of communication between the Knick and Jeremy's representatives, you can't blame Jeremy for wondering what the Knicks would ultimately do.
Finally, and we'd need to look at this, does Dolan's story even align with the timeline? Seems to me that the Felton deal was already done before JLin signed the modified offer sheet from the Rockets. If so . . . well, there goes that "rap" again.
Jeremy Lin - SPARTA athlete
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWJ458aYhF0
Please spread this video to all JLin fans. He's doing his work to get ready for next season. It's going to be exciting to see how much he will improve both his game and fitness level.
someone on reddit had this to say about the racist stephen a. certainly paints a clearer picture:
ReplyDeletemaxmax 16 points 9 hours ago
Here's what you need to know about Stephen A. Smith: Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has become a huge player very quickly in the representation of NBA players. This started with Lebron James, but now includes many if not most of the league's superstars along with lots of other smaller fish. You may have heard of William Wesley. He is a part of CAA.
CAA represents Carmelo Anthony, Mark Warkentien (advisor to Glenn Grunwald). The Knicks forced Woodson to switch to CAA before extending his contract. JR Smith is also represented by CAA.
MSG itself uses CAA to attract sponsorships. Eddy Curry and Renaldo Balkman were also repped by CAA, and Isiah Thomas has close ties to the agency.
Getting back to Steven A. Smith -- Smith knew a full week before anyone else had confirmation that Lebron was going to Miami. How did he know this? CAA of course. He traded his journalist soul (if he ever had one) in exchange for information about perhaps the biggest sports story of the millennium. In return, all he has to do is sell the angle that CAA wants him to sell.
CAA, of course, wants to grow the brand of its clients and to keep its clients happy. Before revising their statements, Smith and Melo seemed rather unhappy about sharing the spotlight with Lin, so that's one factor. Likewise, it doesn't behoove Anthony and therefore CAA to have Lin drawing all the popularity in NYC. Anthony, like Lebron, wants to be a legacy player, the kind of guy who still has his name on a shoe a decade after he's retired. That's the modern NBA goal -- to be the next Jordan, not necessarily on the basketball court (unless it's absolutely necessary), but definitely from a marketing standpoint.
Its a natural repercussion of media insanity. It makes everything seem about image, the game taking the backseat. Dwight Howard, for example, doesn't want to go to a contender. He wants to go somewhere he can build his brand. Carmelo could have picked lots of better teams if he wanted a championship, but NYC was a place you could have a marketing legacy.
My opinion, first of all, is that Dolan still believes that the acquisition of Carmelo Anthony was a steal, probably because CAA gave him the impression that it was only through his kindnesses to their agency (and not because NYC gave up a ton of assets) that he was able to acquire Anthony. JR Smith's cheap deals, too, were probably payback for Dolan's kindnesses to CAA. Who knows what level of under the table stuff there is going on between MSG and CAA.
So, when CAA's plans for Carmelo to be that Jordan level guy get threatened by Jeremy Lin, who has other representation, my guess is not too long after the gears were already turning to re-engineer the team so that Anthony could be front and center. First, it was D'Antoni, another guy not represented by CAA. His preferred style of play was A) Allowing Lin to thrive, and B) Preventing Melo from getting the requisite 28 PPG. As that plan was in danger of failure simply due to massive fan interest, Lin had to be removed from the equation entirely.
Again not realizing he was being played, Dolan accommodated CAA and let Lin go for nothing. So that's a big part of why all this has happened, and why the media, especially Stephen A (whose profile, thanks to CAA, is much bigger now) is slandering Lin and really has been slandering Lin ever since he broke out. Go look. You'll see he held out as long as he can with "flash in the pan" theories. You'll also see he called for D'Antoni's head before he was fired. here's a little love fest he gives for J.R. Smith. Here he already Knows MDA will be gone, and although he denies it, the headline and article's content clearly intends to portray D'Antoni as being at fault.
http://www.reddit.com/r/NYKnicks/comments/wqs35/hes_the_pg_gotham_needs_right_now_but_not_the_one/
That's a pretty revealing peek behind the curtain of professional sports, big business, and what passes for "journalism" in America.
DeleteIt's pretty ugly, but it's prolly accurate.
Dolan prefers a team of dysfunctional thugs as opposed to wholesome Christian men. JLin will be missed in NYC. He was a great team player. Knicks prefer (Melo)drama.
ReplyDeleteInteresting ... so the CAA = the Illuminati.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite simple.
ReplyDeleteIn business, an employer sets the salary for an employee based on what they think he's worth.
The Knicks set Lin's salary at 1 year, $1 million. They could have set it more, but NOOOOOO. So that's what they thought of Lin's ability: a 1 year, $1 million minimum wage player.
In accordance with their LOW opinion of Lin's value to the franchise, the Knicks shopped 3 other point guards and gave bigger offers to two of them. Of course, the point guards earning more than $1 million shouldn't be expected to sit behind the player earning $1 million.
New York toyed with the idea of matching Lin, but they NEVER DID ANYTHING. They didn't even talk to him after the LA meeting.
Now the Knicks have their point guards that they believe are better than $1 million Lin. ENJOY!!!
K, again - qualifying offer. Look it up.
DeleteThe Knicks were ready to sign Lin to 4/28 (3/20), so your bizarre insistence on this point is bizarre.
* oops, didn't mean to double up on 'bizarre'. Just the 2nd one will do.
DeleteMy understanding is that the Knicks could have offered more if they wanted to, just like they did with Landry Fields.
DeleteMatching the $24 million contract nwver happened. It was a FANTASY.
Thus the Knicks offered Lin what they thought he was worth. Lin received exactly one contract offer, and that was it. It's bizarre to assume otherwise.
No, the qualifying offer is restricted by rule. Lin's qualifying offer fit the rule. I know what it said on hoopshype about Fields. That was an error.
Deleteheh, continuing from the CAA post above..if there's any doubt whether isiah thomas (who jordan continuously shat on) was involved in removing lin... check out his twitter message shortly after Lin tweeted about the CNNSI article.
ReplyDeletehuh?
ReplyDelete"right handed point guards dribble all day with your left"
Sounds like good advice to Lin. I am dumb though and might have missed the big picture :).
it's a parting shot at lin for talking to sports illustrated and exposing the Knicks / stephen a smith lies.
DeleteInterview with D'Antoni who is in England on Lin ending up with Rockets
ReplyDeletesportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/nba/wires/07/18/2030.ap.bkn.lin.reax.1st.ld.writethru.0793/index.html?sct=obinsite
"if Dolan really had wanted Jeremy, why didn't he make an offer up front? Why wait for Jeremy to get an offer from another team? An offer that many, including this site, predicted would contain the type of poison pill that Dolan was so insulted by?"
ReplyDeleteI don't know why so many people assume Lin would have agreed to a Knicks offer out of the gate, given that the NBA players union had just won Lin's early Bird rights, meaning the Knicks could go above the salary cap to match an offer to Lin as a restricted free agent.
It's more likely Lin would have shopped the Knicks offer than accepted it.
The Knicks could have made a market-setting offer up front, but it's normal for teams to make a qualifying offer to reserve their right of 1st refusal, then match (or not) the best offer their restricted free agent finds on the market.
From Larry Coon's CBA FAQ, "The qualifying offer for all other players must be for 125% of the player's previous salary, or the player's minimum salary (see question number 16) plus $200,000, whichever is greater1."
The max offer the Knicks could have made to Lin was limited to 4 years with a base salary equal to the non-taxpayer MLE (5 base, up to 4/24). The max offer that other teams could make to Lin was about 5/5/15/15 or 4/40. In other words, the Rockets poison pill could have been worse.
Lin's restricted free agency was normal up to the point of the 2nd offer, after which it took a strange turn. Apparently, Dolan wasn't "insulted" by a poison pill offer in and of itself, given that the 1st offer from the Rockets was also a poison pill. Given the "match any offer" and "up to a 1 billion" sentiments, it's not clear the Knicks had a set ceiling above which they wouldn't match on Lin. Certainly, it doesn't appear the Knicks ever warned Lin there was a ceiling.
Based on the Isola report, it seems Dolan was angered more by the last-minute change in terms than the amount of the revised offer. At least Isola believes if the 1st offer had been 3/25, Dolan would have matched it.
If you believe a single word that ignoramus Isola writes, then that's all I need to know about you.
DeleteIt's the only data point we have so far about Dolan's thinking behind an odd decision.
DeleteIf it was a straight basketball or business decision, either could make sense. But the Knicks apparently were happy to match at 4/28 (3/20), which presents the same issues as 3/25, only different in amount.
The Knicks never matched anything.
DeleteThat's the harsh reality, just like we now know Woodson was LYING or STUPID WRONG when he said "absolutely" Lin would be back.