To me, this is telling:
Lin says that would have been his strong preference. He traveled to Los Angeles this summer to dine with Mike Woodson, and came away excited -- even though Woodson, who was in Los Angeles to visit Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Landry Fields, said he lacked time to venture to Palo Alto to see Lin.
Then Lin's relations with the Knicks went like this: He learned the Knicks didn't want to make him a contract offer, but instead wanted the market to set his value. He heard they were going to bring in other point guards. He signed the only offer he had on the table, from the Rockets. He learned online about the Raymond Felton trade. And the next time he talked to the Knicks in any meaningful way, as Lin tells it, it was to field a phone call learning the Knicks would not match.Yeah, seems like the Knicks really wanted JLin.
Thanks for everything New York, lol...
ReplyDeleteCan someone set up a petition for SAS to be removed from his post? Change.org? I'd gladly sign it! I've muted this clown a long time ago, and now I'm reading some of the comments and complaints from folks. It sounds like I'm not the only one sick of this piper.
ReplyDeleteWe can have Ludacris (the rapper) replace him. Viewers will never know.
ReplyDeleteIt's unbelievable that JLin had to read on the internet that the Knicks were signing Fat Felton. I'm sure many of his fans knew before him. The Indiana U connection with Woodson and Grunwald and perhaps Isiah Thomas lurking in the background are a bunch of idiots. Now, I finally realize the ineptitude of owner Jim Dolan.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the final friendly moment from the Knicks was when they publicly proclaimed they were matching the 1st offer. When the news of the 2nd offer came out, clearly after that point, Lin was persona non grata to the Knicks.
DeleteI still don't get why Woodson keeps getting lumped in. Whatever the front office shenanigans, Woodson has been fine to Lin.
BS, Eric.
DeleteWoodson has been in on this whole charade from the start. As head coach of the Knicks, he is directly responsible for kicking Lin off his Knicks.
It seems that Lin knows how to punk people off the court, not just on it.
ReplyDeleteI figured that there was no way Lin could have gotten this far if he didn't know how to battle people trying to stop him or turn him into a villain.
Lin is Taiwanese ... so he knows how to FIGHT.
That last comment was just plain ignorant..it doesnt even
Deletemake sense..cause hes taiwanese he knows how to fight..smh
Racist, you know NOTHING about our culture.
DeleteI'll teach you right now, you little punk.
To me it was clear that Woodson has never fully believed in Lin. And the fact that the Knicks didn't make him a contract offer to start with was indication that they had other individuals in mind as priority over Lin. Dolan made a decision that was emotional and ultimately betrayed all Knick fans of Lin. It was nothing to do with money. They just didn't want Lin enough, they were the ones who were not straight forward nor sincere. Even my 12-year-old son who has been following the drama unfold is of the opinion that the Knicks screwed up big time.
ReplyDeleteLin did what any player in his position would have done. He doesn't even have to respond to critics.
I am glad the drama is over and Lin has moved on to a better place. My son and I are New Yorkers and are sad to see him go on the one hand, but on the other we are happy for Lin. We think things worked out for the better for him. He might have been just as happy to have stayed with the Knicks had Dolan matched the offer, but I think how this turned out has shown Lin the true face of he who runs the Knicks.
Now we just have to figure out how best to watch Rockets games from NYC!
Dolan screwed up, no doubt. From a basketball, PR, and business perspective, he should have matched.
DeleteIt's true that the Rockets broke an NBA custom by changing the terms of the deal, so Dolan has a right to be pissed, but still a mistake to not match out of spite.
Yes, the Knicks could have made a better offer out of the gate, but I think too much is made of that. The union winning Lin's early Bird rights meant the Knicks could match an offer and RFAs exploring the market is normal. Where this goes wrong isn't the absence of an initial market-setting offer, but the Knicks setting Lin's expectation by telling him they'd match any offer, then in the end, declining to match the revised offer. Lin didn't know the Knicks wouldn't match 15 mil in year 3, but if Dolan was reacting out of anger, it's possible the Knicks couldn't have told Lin their matching ceiling because there wasn't one until Dolan went off.
Woodson has been fine to Lin.
Pursuing other PGs while Lin was out exploring the market was fine, too. Remember, Lin went down with a 'wear and tear' injury and the team suffered from its chaotic PG situation last season. While Nash would have started over Lin, after Nash chose the Lakers, the Knicks still needed to hire a back-up PG.
If Woodson believed in Lin, Lin would be a Knick today.
DeleteCoach Kevin McHale and GM Daryl Morey believe in Lin, so much that they've been talking in the press about Lin's excellence since February. Not only that, they backed up their statements with that nice new contract.
Lin is a Rocket. A new story begins.
@Eric,
DeleteYou're full of shit. You're not objective because your a Knicks fan, but it's pretty known in basketball circles that Woodson wanted nothing to do with Lin. If you can accept that, then you're blind.
TVN, I just watched their 7 games together and saw how Woodson used Lin.
DeleteK, it wasn't Woodson's call. The last thing Woodson had to say on the matter, on the record, was the Knicks were absolutely matching (the 1st offer) and Lin was his starter ... which apparently was a key contributor to the mess that followed.
DeleteI agree with TVN.
DeleteMike Woodson is Glen Grunwald's hand picked coach. Woodson had TREMENDOUS influence over not just dumping Lin, but replacing Lin with Kidd.and Felton.
Kidd is a back-up. Felton was only traded for after the 2nd offer.
DeleteAdd: More, Kidd was a back-up who talked a lot about working with Lin.
DeleteKHuang
Delete"If Woodson believed in Lin, Lin would be a Knick today."
I don't think so.
It's all about Melo who had reinforced his position in the Knicks in his 17 games under Woodson when Lin was down. To the Knick management, Melo is the centerpiece of the team. They have more confidence on Melo than on Lin. Besides,they've invested too much on Melo not to back him up.
As Jared Jeffries said in an interview, "coach Woodson is a great personality manager." Woodson Knows what the management think and his priority is to cater Melo's need to get his cooperation. Melo had played his best games without Lin during Mar.26 - Apr. 26, 2012. That's why they didn't make any offer to Lin. They would resign Lin if his contract is really cheap. But when Lin's got a good offer from Houston, they've got a good excuse to let him go.
If Woodson wasn't so hellbent on catering to Melo at Lin's expense, the Knicks would still have Jeremy Lin.
DeleteVery interesting, especially looking about on the comments from this post where some of you made some astute observations about JLin's body language, etc:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jeremylin.net/2012/06/jlin-visiting-taiwan-in-august.html#comment-form
"JLin looked a little down walking out of the restaurant while Woodson looked quite upbeat"
"He looks like a little boy hiding from the spotlight. Essentially showing, with his body language: That he doesn't have confidence in himself, is a follower rather than a leader, and that he's already put his complete trust in Mike Woodson and the Knicks organization. The same organization he's trying to get a max contract out of."
"He does look uncomfortable and unsure on this occasion for some reason, but it does not warrant an extrapolation to his general ability to be the face of the franchise."
If he looked deflated at all, it probably wasn't just the fact that he was trying to play keep-away from the Paparazzi. I'm sure it had a lot more to do with what Woodson et el told him over dinner. And I'm guessing he lost his appetite halfway through dinner.
I guess you didn't read the source material. From the SI article:
DeleteThat night, over dinner at Mastro's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills, the guard was sold. "Woodson was saying, 'You're going to be a starter, you're going to be a big part of the team,'" Lin said. "I came away really excited."
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/nba/07/18/jeremy-lin-exclusive/index.html#ixzz211MlmzyS
I thought Lin was tired and/or drunk and/or ignoring the pap.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@Eric,
DeleteYou're a damn clown. Jeremy doesn't drink, doofus.
I'll stop the name-calling (my bad, it's uncalled for), but Eric is basically a shill for the Knocks.
DeleteOh, Lin drinks. Google it. I believe he has dinner pics with alchohol on his twitter, too.
DeleteAdd: He's 23. Lin was/is a Harvard fratboy jock. What do you think it is Harvard fratboy jocks do in Boston? It's not a bad thing.
DeleteAdd: http://twitter.com/#!/JLin7/media/slideshow?url=http%3A%2F%2Finstagr.am%2Fp%2FMCxlVBEwNY%2F
DeleteMaybe Lin was "excited", but he also should have been CONFUSED on hearing from Woodson about the Knicks getting all sorts of guys to play his position.
DeleteLin needed a back-up regardless, so the Knicks signing PGs in and of itself was expected.
DeleteNash is Nash. He was a long shot but an understandable play for the Knicks. I doubt Lin was confused by the Knicks play for Nash. If it was a play for an average starting PG like, say, Raymond Felton, that would have been confusing.
Then Kidd and Prigioni, whose signing still isn't done yet, are back-ups, which Lin needed. That's not confusing.
The Felton trade in reaction to the 2nd Rockets offer confused Lin. The writing was on the wall when the Knicks got Felton.
Ah nevermind then hahaha... I guess they started snubbing him after they learned of him accepting the Rockets' offer and were all butt-hurt about it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what's the norm for teams communicating with their free agents. For example, when the whole Eric Gordon Hornets/Suns max offer, don't match I wanna be a Sun stuff was going on, how much did the Hornets talk with Gordon?
DeleteApparently, Woodson breaking 'radio silence' to go on the record about matching on Lin was a no-no.
I assume Jason Kidd heard about the Felton trade while driving his car. I think his DWI incident had a lot to do with that fact that he realized that the Knicks' real plan was to have Kidd back up Felton. It would be quite depressing if you were Kidd knowing you were turning 40 and the sun is setting on your bball skills, then was lied to. I think he thought that he and Jeremy would split playing time or play at the same time as a back court, but he then figured out that Felton will be favored to play around 30 minutes and Kidd around 20 minutes a game.
ReplyDeleteJeremy is surely learning fast about the real behind the scenes culture of the real world. How people say one thing and do the other. As for people thinking he looked unconfident, they are clearly just misreading him. Confidence is shown in many different ways, and there are different standards in terms of one's morals. It's not his style to demand attention like the way a Kobe or a Shaq. I think the main thing is that the mainstream is unaware or Asian mannerisms and they expect the Asian to conform to black swag culture if he's in the NBA. Similar to the white office culture. If you are Asian, you have to behave with white mannerisms because they are all expected to conform to a specific standard of behaviour.
ReplyDeleteActually, it seems that Jeremy Lin has an advanced degree in "Knowing Thy Enemies".
DeleteEvery step of the way, Lin has covered himself and done the right thing. The people he surrounds himself have done an exemplary job in looking after him.
Lin clearly understands that the NBA is a business and he is to deal only with entities like the Rockets that aren't trying to shyster him the way the Knicks have been all along.
This article has said it all as I suspected.
ReplyDeleteHow Linsanity disrupted Carmelo Anthony's long-term vision in New York
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8180308/nba-jeremy-lin-six-degrees-separation-family
1. The Knicks have no intention to resign Lin unless he's contract is really really cheap. Melo is the center piece of the team and Melo had played his best games in the last season when Lin was down. Therefore, they think Felton & Kidd would be a better fit/service to Melo.
2. Regarding report that Dolan was pissed at Morey's upping the offer and Lin's disloyalty so he decided not to match, it's just a cover to deflect the anger of fans. Although fans are still angry, it's a good excuse to cover up their callousness to Lin and to protect Melo.