My Take on the End of Linsanity

Let me start by saying that 'Linsanity' came to an end about two weeks after it began. February 23, Carmelo's third game back from injury, in Miami, and it was the first game where Jeremy Lin was exposed for the point guard that he wasn't, and most likely still isn't.

Now let me also say that I didn't want Linsanity back (of course I did, but that's not even remotely realistic on a team catered to Melo), but I did think Jeremy Lin the combo guard was a great fit for the Knicks, and that it was a no-brainer to re-sign him.

We've all seen what's happened since.

Despite Mike Woodson referring to Lin as his starter, despite James Dolan telling him he was "a part of the teams future," and despite GM Glen Grunwald repeatedly saying they would match "any offer" that Lin signed after the Knicks told him to test the market and measure his own value, the Knicks didn't match the lucrative offer that the Houston Rockets made to him.

I don't personally believe that a 20-30 game stretch of greatness followed by forced mediocrity is enough to land someone a 3year/$25 million contract, and I don't believe that Jeremy Lin was the final piece to the puzzle that equated to a Knicks championship. I do however, think the Knicks look like the same classless, backwards organization they always have for writing checks with their mouths that their fat-ass egotistic owner pettily didn't want to match. I don't know if Dolan had ageda from hearing so many positive things about the team that was in the midst of being assembled, or if maybe he didn't want some unsung, underdog, unassuming hero to take the glamour away from his stubborn superstar (looking at you Melo), but Dolan put the kibosh on Linsanity, and the hope of the Knicks having a rising star of their own (Shump you're hurt so you don't exist right now).

Basketball reasons aside (which sounds silly), this move is another in a long, long line of moves that clearly stick it to the fans. Some say Dolan and Grunwald knew Lin was history as of Saturday when they had a trade ready for Raymond Felton - who I welcome back with open arms whether or not D'Antoni's still the coach - did they really need to make fans wait on the edge of their seats until 10:30 PM Tuesday night? Did they really need to keep tight-lipped, thinking they were sticking it to the Rockets, but really just sticking it to their own fans. The same fans who were still desperate for someone to root for as both Melo and Amar'e Stoudemire came to camp out of shape last season. The same fans who ate up Linsanity like they won an NBA Championship every night for 2 straight weeks. The fans who celebrated a buzzer-beater against the Raptors and a 38-point fearless performance against the Lakers by making his jersey the top-selling jersey in the league.

These are the people that support the Knicks, despite awful decisions with irrational reasoning behind them. They just gave a three year deal to Jason Kidd, whose entering the realm of a 40-year old, with way less to offer, but both looking like a great fit for this team if he plays a lesser role with a guy like Lin ahead of them. Kidd looked like the best possible pick-up after Steve Nash as he'd be able to play with and teach Lin the ropes at the same time. Now with more pressure on Kidd, do you really feel confident in his 40-year old knees running the offense that has looked stagnant more than it hasn't (especially without Lin) over the last year?

Make the argument that running the offense through Melo makes Lin less valuable, and certainly not worth paying nearly $15 mil in salary to (triple that for the luxury tax) in year three and you're not wrong, but then why didn't the Knicks come out and say that from the getgo? The fact that they didn't once address overpaying for him, rather repeatedly saying they'd pay whatever it takes, makes you wonder why in fact they didn't bring him back.

Do they really think 14.6 and 6.2 (including 10 games where he played 7 minutes or fewer) wouldn't fit with this team comprised of a point guard coming off of a season and a half of misery, and an aging vet who missed significant time due to injury last season for the first time in years? Also, with Shumpert's injury, that means more minutes (and with minutes comes more bad shots) for J.R. Smith, wouldn't Lin serve this team well as a guard who can pick up some scoring slack and also handle the offense and give Kidd the rest he'll undeniably need, while filtering the good and bad shots between Steve Novak and Smith?

If your motto is win now, and the only real money you have left to spend this offseason could have been spent on Jeremy Lin, wouldn't it have made a ton of sense to bring back a crowd favorite with the potential to be a real ball player? A guy who at worst would have filled about the only gap (other than not having LeBron) that this team has left before they can at least try to win the division. You pay him the $5 mil a year for the first two years, and by year three you either have a cash cow catepillar who will always be voted most popular as long as he's in NY, or a blossoming butterfly who could best case scenario be your franchise point guard.

Honestly - the Knicks haven't had a franchise point guard since Clyde Frazier!!!

Why must this trend continue?

I digress, I understand that they won't have a franchise anything as long as this is Melo's team. But Melo clearly can't do it on his own, and until Amar'e proves he's still a superstar in this league, the Knicks need as many contributors as they can get. If they turn around and use their veteran's minimum on a guy like Randy Foye, Shannon Brown, even a James Anderson or Carlos Delfino, I'll hold less of a gripe against them for letting Lin go. But the bottom line is the only reason Lin wasn't brought back had to be a personal issue that Dolan had, and to me that's unacceptable.

This turned into more of a rant than I intended for it to, and I could go on-and-on about Dolan, but I want to end by that saying this season wasn't being made or broken by Jeremy Lin. The Knicks have gone out and gotten some terrific pieces for this season, and they will have to work together in Woody's Melo iso offense, because we know they're going to bring it on the defensive end.

It's more a shame, a major bummer at the end of a great day, that the Knicks couldn't just end their successful summer by re-signing the guy that the majority of the fan base wanted back. I try not to question basketball minds when it comes to evaluating talent, and maybe the overriding sentiment was that Lin wasn't the real deal, but he definitely deserved another shot. Since the Knicks didn't go out and make him an offer of their own, they at least should have expected to have to match an unreasonable deal, and in my opinion, they should have matched Houston's offer to give him at least one season. GMs have dealt worse contracts, and of course there's the now very famous Stretch Provision. But at the end of the day, this team wasn't riding or dieing by Jeremy Lin, it's Melo's team, and Raymond Felton's no slouch, really.

From here, I'm not openly rooting against Lin, but I hope that Dolan and Grunwald walk away from this looking like they made the right decision from a basketball stance. But if they didn't, it'll just be another bad move on the long laundry list of bad moves this team has made...in the last 12 years or so.

Thanks for the memories Jeremy, but you should have known better, and so have we, never to trust James Dolan.