Do the New York Knicks have to patch things up with Jeremy Lin?
According to a report by the New York Daily News, Lin is upset that the Knicks didn’t offer him a new contract before the Houston Rocketscame calling with a lucrative offer sheet.
Lin has verbally agreed to sign a four-year offer sheet with the Rockets. The deal reportedly is worth $28.8 million, with $10.2 million coming in the first two seasons and over $9 million in each of the last two.
Despite the Knicks insisting they would match the Rockets’ offer, Lin still feels slighted, according to the Daily News.
“He was surprised that the Knicks didn’t make the first move,” a league source told the paper. “They know they’ve got to mend some fences with him because he believes what the Rockets have told him, that the Knicks weren’t as interested as they are.”
Lin refuted the Daily News report by tweeting, “Lol why do u guys believe everything? No quotes from me = probably not true.”
The Rockets had Lin in training camp last season, but waived him because they already had Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragicon their roster. Now that they’ve traded Lowry to Toronto, and with Dragic headed to Phoenix, Houston is trying to get Lin back.
However, Lin is almost certain to return to the Knicks, who can match the offer as early as Wednesday.
“They will match any offer on Lin up to 1 billion dollars,” a source told ESPN.com’s Marc Stein.
Lin made $788,000 last season when he averaged 14.6 points, 6.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 35 games with 25 starts before his campaign was cut short because of surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee.
“What he has to learn is that it’s not personal,” the source told the Daily News.”The Knicks merely played by the rules.”
Lin, who went undrafted out of Harvard, became a sensation with a remarkable stretch in February, scoring at least 20 points in nine of 10 games. A high point of that span came Feb. 10, when he scored 38 points and had seven assists in a 92-85 win over the Lakers.
Lin’s expected signing will highlight a busy offseason for the Knicks, who have reached an agreement with veteran playmaker Jason Kidd to back up Lin while reaching a sign-and-trade agreement to bring center Marcus Camby back to New York. J.R. Smith and Steve Novak also are expected to ink new deals.
The changes were first pointed out by bloggers over the weekend and publicized by media outlets Monday, leading to gripes from users, usually on their Facebook pages.
