A Linsane Decision

There was an ominous sense of dread far before the reality even crept in, far before the then-unlikely possibility of this awful reality even crept in, even back as far as when the Cinderella Story – or the ‘Linderella Story’ – was in its glorious prime. We pinched ourselves to be sure if it was really real, if that two week period in February – dubbed worldwide as ‘Linsanity’ – was actually happening. Amid the bad karma imposed on us by our own team, we hoped this wasn’t just a pleasant dream distracting us from the waking pain of our otherwise underwhelming franchise. We were afraid to jinx it because we were afraid of our own history.

For too long, New York Knicks fans have been accustomed to heartbreak. Not the type of heartbreak faced by teams who got unlucky or outmatched by better opponents, but the type of heartbreak that was far too often imposed by the team on its own fans. Too many bad contracts, too many questionable trades, too many stupid back-office decisions.

And as the clock crossed midnight on the 18th of July and Jeremy Lin officially became a Houston Rocket, the Knicks made one of the stupidest back office decisions in a line of stupid back-office decisions. All that the Knicks had to do to keep a hold of the most positive phenomenon in their history in over a decade was to just Keep Hold Of Him! He was theirs and they let him slip away.

I’ve been a New York Knicks fan for half of my life, and at no point was I more excited about the team that had given me years of suffering and embarrassment than during the two-and-a-half-week stretch between February 4th – 23rd, 2012. The first date there is the night when Lin came off the bench to drop 25 points on Deron Williams, and spark the beginning of basketball’s most ‘Lincredible’ story. The second date is the night when Mario Chalmers, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat finally exposed Lin’s obvious weaknesses to end his remarkable run of 19 days as the NBA’s best player. During this period, Lin went from forgotten, un-drafted, bench player, to the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. He went from barely playing any NBA minutes to breaking records for points in his first few starts. He took his team from having an awful 8-15 record to respectability, and a playoff spot. He went from sleeping on a team mate’s couch to cover pages in magazines all across the world. He went from being a barely known name to becoming one of the NBA’s highest selling jerseys worldwide. He became a symbol for Asian-Americans, for Asians worldwide, for Christians, for undrafted players, for Ivy-league players, Knicks’ fans, for underdogs.

No, Jeremy Lin’s value on the basketball court never matched, and is never going to match, his value off of it. But strap away all the hype and marketing and what you’re left with is a pretty solid point guard for a team that desperately needed a solid point guard. You were left with a player who averaged 18.2 points and 7.7 assists per game as a starter in 25 games last season. You were left with a player who empowered New York’s entire roster around him, including Tyson Chandler, Landry Fields, Steve Novak, and JR Smith. You were left with someone who had the Knicks usually winning games with him, and usually losing them without him.

There is great value to that. And there is even greater value to the other things that Jeremy Lin symbolized. He was an unexpected gift to an otherwise poorly-managed franchise, a player who made disgruntled Knicks fans such as myself feel positive about the future again. He was the reason for the Knicks to have more crazed fans at their arena, the reason why Knicks games would be broadcast more regularly all across the globe, the reason why Knicks jerseys were going to be top-sellers in the NBA. He was the reason that the Knicks were likeable again. For those things, he was invaluable.

All that James Dolan had to do was to do what Knicks management had done several times more with less deserving players. With Eddy Curry, with Jerome James, with Jared Jefferies, with Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury, and unfortunately, also with an injured Allan Houston. He had to extend Lin’s contract.

Instead, Dolan let Lin test the market, the Knicks signed a 39-year-old Jason Kidd, Lin signed a rich offer-sheet from the Rockets, Carmelo Anthony called it a ‘ridiculous’ contract, Dolan perhaps felt betrayed by Lin’s move, Knicks traded for Raymond Felton, Lin’s contract wasn’t matched by New York, and Jeremy Lin became a Rocket.

After all the bad contracts given by the Knicks over the past decade, the one ‘bad’ contract that made sense for the morale of their fans was that of Lin. And the Knicks let him go.

To the Rockets fans: Congrats, you have in Jeremy a fantastic player, who will inspire you both on and off the court. He may never be able to recreate those magical two-and-a-half-weeks in New York, but he is an asset nonetheless. He will be a good fit in a system which will encourage him to share the ball, and he will develop as the team’s best player. Yes, Houston will probably come to regret giving him so much money by the third year of the contract when he begins to get paid as much as a player worth twice his talent, but by then, they would have probably enjoyed your fill of worldwide Linsanity.

And us Knicks fans are left with another season which will be bleak more nights than not, when the best we will do is hope to win a couple of first round playoff games and the worst we’ll do is to have another losing season and find Amar’e Stoudemire punch his way through every fire extinguisher around the NBA. It is at this point when I wonder: should I be mad at the Knicks for making yet another bad decision, or be made at myself for supporting a team that can’t help but make bad decisions, year after year?

Perhaps the 19 days of Linsanity in February were a pleasant dream after all. Everything else for a Knick fan has been nothing short of a nightmare.