Five months after being introduced to the world, Jeremy Lin is always inspiring various forms of passion and hysteria. This is not Linsanity we knew in February, when the word was synonymous with joy and wonder, but some horrible mutation of this phenomenon.
In this version, is a franchise Linsanity Knicks voluntarily extinguish the joy. It is a fear frenzied fan base that is raging against another affront, after a decade full of them.
If you had told five months ago that the Knicks let Jeremy Lin - their most popular player in a decade - just walk, you would have been called worse than crazy.
Yet it seems that the Knicks will. Or they might. As always, their intentions are not entirely clear.
And there is more speculation than reality tangible.
Several newspapers, citing unnamed sources, reported this weekend that the Knicks intend to let him go to Houston Lin, lower to match a period of three years, $ 25.1 million offer sheet Rockets .The reason is money. Rockets offers includes a balloon payment of the third year $ 14.98 million. Under the NBA's new luxury tax system that punishes teams that exceed a certain threshold wildly, that the salary could cost the Knicks an additional $ 35 million 45 million of tax payments. While the Knicks were no problems with their payroll during the last decade, even Madison Square Garden has a limit. The contract could be it. A person with knowledge of the deliberations of the Knicks said he was "more likely than not" that the team would be reduced to match the offer. The same person warned, however, that "n ' is not final. " Lin has played brilliantly for most of February.
He electrified the garden and saved the season the Knicks. It is a global marketing machine. But $ 60 million is an extraordinary amount, even in NBA terms, to pass for a player who started only 25 games. Knicks officials were generally silent, and they are under no obligation to say anything to anyone until Tuesday - the deadline to match the offer of Houston. It is unlikely that there will be any clarity until then. (This is a well established tradition for NBA teams to wait until the last minute in these matters.)
The intentions of the Knicks seemed to be telegraphed Saturday night, when they reached an informal agreement to acquire Raymond Felton, a veteran playmaker, Portland. Although Felton could simply be an insurance policy - a hedge against age Jason Kidd (39) and the inexperience of Lin - the movement has been widely interpreted as the first step to sever ties with Lin. Lin said he believed associated Felton was acquired to replace him. However, Lin was not even sure what the Knicks are going to do those associated said. It has been said nothing directly by team officials. And nobody in the hierarchy of the Knicks is talking, leaving fans to speculate and freight. "I'm going for a walk. Perhaps a cliff. I do not know, let's see," Jim Cavan, a Knicks fan and blogger, wrote on his Twitter account Sunday morning.
Comments like that were common distraught fans struggling with the news. An online petition calling for the Knicks to keep Lin was already in circulation. There were over 2,000 signatories at midnight on Sunday. The decision was never supposed to be this complicated or stressful. Lin is a restricted free agent, allowing the Knicks to match any offer. He has rights, Early Bird, which give more flexibility to the Knicks pay him, regardless of the salary cap. And due to a dark cap provision, no rival has been authorized to offer Lin pay more than $ 5 million to start. This provision, known as Rule, Gilbert Arenas, was created to ensure that the teams could re-sign as a star Lin escape without fear of being outbid by a team with cap room. The rule is well-meaning with unexpected consequences.
The Rockets can not outbid the Knicks, but because they are under the cap, they are allowed to give a lump sum and Lin - a so-called poison pill - in the third year of his contract. Houston initially set the figure at $ 9.3 million, then it rose to $ 14.98 million, close to the maximum allowed. For purposes of capitalization, Lin three-year salary would be considered average for Houston, or 8.4 million per year. But the Knicks should pay the full amount in 2014-15, which cost $ 50 million $ 60 million a combination of payroll taxes and luxury, the rival leaders said. However, Lin would probably be undervalued in the first two years - to $ 5 million and $ 5.4 million - and the Knicks would be the time to rework their payroll or, ultimately, trade-Lin by the third year, when its term contract would have become a commodity.
These considerations are still weighing the Knicks. Lin would pay the greater of the third Knicks in 2014-15, behind those of Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. It would just over Tyson Chandler, the prevailing defensive player of the year. Even N.B.A. Players who are accustomed to seeing contracts fanciful steal every July, the supply of Lin appeared impressive. Anthony, speaking to reporters covering the U.S. Olympic team, said Sunday that many. "It's not mine," he said. "This is the organization to say they want to match the contract ridiculous." Wages may indeed be ridiculous. But a legion of fans of the Knicks in New York and beyond, the idea of letting the leave is Linsanity Lin pure, and not the good kind.
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