Is It Linsane Not to Match?

UPDATE: The New York Times is now reporting that, as of 4 PM today, the NY Knicks have essentially decided to not match the Rockets' offer.


In one man's opinion, well not just one as there's Stephen A. Smith (wait am I about to agree with Stephen A. Smith. *Shudder* Momma. I feel so cold. What's happening? Were the Mayans riight??), it is not, in fact, linsane.


First and foremost, for a Harvard guy of (apparently) good, moral, Christian upbringing, it is hard to believe that Lin was stupid enough to take Jim Dolan's assurances that the Knicks would match back to the Rockets in hopes of getting more money. I mean, don't get me wrong, in general this is a smart business move to leverage whatever information you have in order to further solidify your position and get more money. ShaoLin, however, was dealing with Jimmy Dolan. So go ahead and throw "general situations" out the window. OF COURSE, Dolan was going to take that personally as a breach of trust. He's a selfish, solipsistic man-child. Further, it backfired. Lin made no more money, I believe the offer actually went down from a balanced $28 million with $9 million a year, the Rockets just went the "poison pill" route and backloaded his contract in hopes that the Knicks would not match because of that monstrous $14.9 million (or whatever) third year. This would put the Knicks far over the cap in Lin's third year and cost them an additional, roughly, $35 million in luxury tax penalties under the new CBA.


Despite Bill Simmons' opinion, I don't think a ton of the actual Knicks fans care that much. Casual fans surely will be disappointed (only so many players have caused people's moms to comment on the Knicks; "How 'bout that Jeremy Lin, huh?"), but they'll also move on within a couple of days. Sure, Linsanity was an exciting run, but it was also a run primarily under Mike D'Antoni. There is no guarantee that Jeremy would be anywhere as good under Woodson's ingenius(ly repugnant) continuous Carmelo Iso, especially considering what a turnover machine Lin was. Unlike Jason Kidd, Lin doesn't have the cache to direct Melo; as any Knicks fan saw on more than one occasion last year. Simply put, the sample size was far to small to dedicate this type of money to the kid. As much as I despise everything about Dolan, and despite how much I distrust the front office to do anything that makes a semblance of sense, I cannot blame them from deciding against making what amounts to a $40 million gamble. And, yes, I hear y'all saying that worst case scenario is that Lin gets traded in the 3rd year as an expiring contract but who says that will work out. And who are the Knicks going to get in return so that the contracts work out? The league's love of expirings does little to take away from the gamble. 


If it's true that Lin is gone, I wish him all the luck in the world. He seems like a good dude and a hard worker, so I'd like him to succeed. But all the screeching from various sectors about how this is more Knicks front office ineptitude, or that Knicks fans should switch allegiance to Bk if Lin isn't resigned (ahem, pump thebreaksGrantland, ahem), needs to stop. If nothing else, you are not really a Knicks fans if you can't let front office ineptitude roll off your back like so many rain drops off a duck's and just hope for the better. And if Lin IS back. Eff it. Kidd's going to mentor him and we'll figure out year 3 later. Woot. Let's roll into '12/'13 'Bockers.


At worst, I can just continue to nourish myself on the Jimmy Dolan haterade. 

In recent days, two people briefed on the Knicks’ deliberations said it was unlikely the team would keep Lin. Yet both cautioned that the decision was not final and would ultimately be made by one person: James L. Dolan, the Madison Square Garden chairman.

Either way, win-win for me.


UPDATE: For a conflicting but still astute take on the now confirmed decision to not match the Rockets' offer to Lin, check out Jay Caspian Kang over at Grantland. We both agree though, wholeheartedly, that Jimmy Dolan, like many trust fund babies, sucks at life.


IMAGE: NBA.com

Dolan Out the Existential Pain

In the (I think) latest New York Magazine, Will Leitch has an article outlining how Carmelo Anthony has essentially hijacked the Knickerbockers franchise by pushing out one coach (Mike D'Antoni- TRUE), insisting on the hiring of another coach (Mike Woodson- PROBABLE) and then forcing the latter to drop his agent and join CAA to further kill any leverage the new coach might have (SEEMS LIKE HIM). I agree with the gist of the article in that Melo has too much power on the Knicks and it is going to be a problem for the franchise going forward. I especially agree that the isolation (ISO) sets on offense favored by Carmelo Anthony and Mike Woodson (i.e., why he was hired) are not how one wins a championship. All four teams playing right now move the ball until they find the open shot with the two favorites, San Antonio and OKC (yes, I think whoever comes out of the west wins the title), currently being the best at it. In fact, when the Thunder ran much more Iso sets in the first two games San Antonio slapped em around like petulant school boys.

My quibbles come with his almost throw away Phil Jackson point and his blame falling solely on Melo. While, admittedly, Mr. Leitch may have access to sources that I do not, nothing I've read indicated that Jackson had any real interest in coming to NY. There was that brief period where there was one report that he'd do it for $40-50 million, but, any time the Knicks have had a coaching opening, there was always a rumor that Jackson was coming for some ludicrous amount of money (that I would GLADLY pay). I wasn't holding my breathe waiting for Jackson to come riding on his zen-like steed as a white knight version of Tywin Lannister to save the day at Basketball Mecca. Further, and more importantly pour moi, Melo and his newfound power, if anything, are a symptom of the ultimately problem rather than the actual disease... James Dolan.

I do not care what Bill Simmons or anyone else say, the Knicks gave up too much for Melo in the first place. Despite the argument that one has to do that trade for who the Knicks gave up, they were only bidding against themselves because Jimmy Dolan got involved. What the Knicks gave up was unnecessary. In the same vein, the problem of Melo's coup d'etat came not because of his genius strategy of not playing to his ability, but because Dolan exacerbated the issue by making it clear that it was Melo's franchise and that D'Antoni had no real support. Then, as the final rabbit poop of a cherry on top of the frozen hobo piss sundae, Dolan removed the interim tag from Woodson and required, as a condition precedent for a contract signing, that Woodson switch representation. I firmly believe Woodson deserved the extension for the stretch run, but did Dolan really have to cut him down at the knees before he even has had a chance to actually coach Melo full time? JD, who appropriately makes me need a shot of something, is a facilitator for everything bad Melo brings to the team. It's depressingly Isiah-like all over again. And, because there is no getting out from under the roster we now have because of the unmovable contract, Knicks fans are stuck with what they have. It's not enough.

Welcome back futility; that brief interlude of excitement and hope during that now distant Linsanity thing made me miss you all the more. Time to go back to realizing the Knicks are, as always, not a contender with no hope in sight for the immediate future. Can't wait until the next time I fool myself into thinking the Knickerbockers have a shot and then realize that the team is still owned James Dolan longsigh.


Image: NY Daily News

Jeremy "Shao" Lin: Welcome to the 17th Chamber

As many have recently discovered, Jeremy Lin, the new starting point guard for the New York Knickbockers, raw is how he is going to give it to you, with zero trivia, like cocaine that was recently stripped straight from Bolivian air space (paraphrasing "Da Mystery of Chess Boxing"). Unfortunately, Mr. Lin's glorious emergence also occurred during my absence but, trust, I've been paying pretty close attention (full and sad disclosure: I'm a big Knicks fan).

The Linsanity phenomenon started on February 2 when Lin came into the game against the Nets as a sub. The Knicks were coming to the point where they'd either have to sign Lin for the year and guarantee his contract or release him and have so further obligation. Thus, Coach D'Antoni decided to give him some run to help in the decision making process and Lin responded, with AUTHORITA, going for 25 points, 7 assists and only 1 turnover. He went on to start his next game and a historic 5 game run after his next 4 starts.

During that run, and ever since, there has been much discussion about Jeremy Lin's importance, often concentrating on his race. To a degree, this makes sense. You definitely do not see too many players that look like Jeremy in the NBA, especially not at point guard. This was compounded by how important Jeremy was, understandably so, to the Asian community, both here and abroad. The roar of the crowd after he hit the game winning shot in Toronto, which has a large Asian community with youth sports organizations representing both the Taiwanese and Chinese in attendance at the game, made it seem as if it was a home game at MSG. This, of course, has led to all sorts of responses that skirt or urinate all over the "offensiveness line" such as this, this, or this. Recently, an ESPN editor was fired for an oversight on a headline that could definitely be seen as offensive to Asians. I, for one, do not think that the ESPN slur was intentional. That is a common phrase when it comes to sports and I could easily see how he just plugged it in without thinking about the possible consequences (yay for a post-racial world!). If anything, he was fired for laziness.

All of this has lead to one common question, would Jeremy Lin and his accompanying Linsanity be as big of a deal if he were black (or white for that matter). This is a difficult question for me as it seems clear that, at least coming out of high school, he was underappreciated because of his race. You do not play at his level in the NBA if you did not have the skills to at least get a look by D1 colleges. Right now though, for me and, I think, for a lot of Knicks fans, his race matters not a wit. Personally, I've been starved for a legit point guard running the show at MSG for, well... forever. I mean, I grew up with Greg Anthony (admittedly pretty solid) and Charlie Friggin Ward (YA, THE HEISMAN WINNING QB WHO NEVER GOT DRAFTED AND THEN WENT TO THE NBA) running the show. If you move from the point guard pu-pu platter, especially after the struggles this year trying to find someone who could run the offense, to someone with Lin's court vision, people are going to get excited. Especially if the team starts to reel of a win streak. Especially at the basketball mecca of MSG where a crowd that will kick you with an extra pointy pair of Jimmy Choo's if you are down but lift you up in the embrace of Hulkamania on uppers if you are winning. The long and short of it is... Lin got playing time and the Knicks start winning. When you are talking NYC basketball, that is all that really matters.

We are not yet living in a post-racial America, but Linsanity would still be in full effect whether he was black, white, yellow, red, purple, or an off turquoise. When you step into MSG, color is often replaced by game recognizing game. Say what you want about the 17th Chamber, but he's definitely got game.

LINSANE CLAN AIN'T NOTHING TO F*#K WITH! Riight? Riight guys? No, too much? Whatever... I still say that nickname is sick.

(Image from: Yuku, via Google images [natch])