It's about appearance of professionalism from the organization. Even if Lin hadn't tweeted that many others would have noticed and made a big deal about it. As an organization they could have just made it a non issue by not even putting a number on the jersey but now it is. This meanwhile can look really dumb if Melo opts to stay in NY or goes to Chicago because they haven't traded Lin yet.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Houston's pitch to Carmelo featured him in a #7 jersey. One problem, they already have a #7: <a href="http://t.co/pgD63mG7gA">http://t.co/pgD63mG7gA</a> <a href="http://t.co/gs2V6o8Dxl">pic.twitter.com/gs2V6o8Dxl</a></p>— ESPN (@espn) <a href="https://twitter.com/espn/statuses/484437650552528896">July 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> this is blowing up
I don't quite remember a giant Dwight billboard in front of Toyota Center last year while they were recruiting him. So yes that is a big difference. Like I said it should have been a non issue with the jersey number. Once you get the player then by all means have the two players work out their jersey numbers with money or whatever.
Yeah I knew the media was going to eat this up. Any way they can spin Houston as an undesirable destination for another star.
Agreed. Stupid move by Rockets. You have to put this in perspective for Lin. When he signed here, HE was doing the Rockets a favor. He was going to a small market team that was headed nowhere. He was Linsanity, and for a few short months, was the face and hero of Rockets basketball. Morey and the fan base pleaded for him to come, welcomed him with open arms, and celebrated the fact that Linsanity was now a Rocket. Then things got sour. He played inconsistently, got benched, but still maintained a positive attitude. And now this. Not a classy move by the Rockets organization and I can understand why Lin feels betrayed. I doubt the Rockets did it intentionally to spite Lin, but you have to be smarter than that.
HE came here because NO ONE else bothered to offer him a contract. The only favor was the Rockets forking over 25 million, setting him up for life financially. I swear the stuff you read here some times is just off the charts ridiculous.
Obviously Melo to Houston would mean Lin is gone. It's pure numbers. Melo knows it, the team knows it, the FO knows it, Lin knows it. But a little more tact would have been nice, haha. Especially if Melo choose to go somewhere else and Lin is still on the team next season.
Not really. He was a restricted free agent and Houston offered a contract that New York could not match. I don't even know what your point is, are you saying it's Lin's fault the Rockets payed him and the Rockets didn't even want to?
I'm saying he didn't do the the lowly headed nowhere "small market" rockets any favor by coming here. He had no choice because no one else bothered.
Nah he could have stayed with the Knicks if no1 offered. Plus the Knicks claimed they will match any offer so why would other teams bothered? He is overpaid now for what the Rockets asked him to do. I think he would have been alright value wise if Harden or Howard never came.
Way to completely over-exagerrate what I said. Believe it or not, but the summer before Lin came the Rockets had a miserable month of players leaving, and getting spurned by every big free agent out there. The word on the street was nobody wanted to go to Houston, so when we landed Jeremy Lin, who was actually a pretty big name, we were excited. After getting Harden and Howard we've developed a pretty elitist attitude, but at one time Jeremy Lin was our ONE signing after failing to chase a bunch of other stars. He was supposed to be the face of the team. And yeah, nobody else wanted him thats why we payed him so much. We pitted the lowly Jeremy Lin who nobody else wanted, and gave him a huge contract because we felt bad for him. The Knicks were prepared to cut him when we offered the poison pill.
I'm not over exaggerating anything. The only truth in the original post I responded to was we were going nowhere. Small market? Lin doing us a favor? BS. I never said nobody else wanted him. I said no one else bothered. His options were the rockets 25 million or a low level qualifying offer from New York. I don't remember a lot of excitement about going into the season with Lin. Oh and we did sign Omer that same summer.
Marketing your product and believing it's actually going to be any good are two different things. In fact I remember that being the prevalent thinking of a lot of the fans regarding the Lin signing. A guy to help sell tickets during a time we were going to stink.
Well, I dunno what else to say here. I mean in some sense every free agent is doing that team a favor when they agree to go there. The point that I am trying to make is that I can empathize why he feels betrayed. When Morey and Les courted Lin, they probably made him feel very important and that he would be a huge part of a young, upcoming team. Part of it was his shaky play, part of it was not getting the right opportunity, but it probably doesn't feel good for their to be billboards in front of the stadium of a star wearing your jersey. I can understand letting Lin go, but this is kind of a slap in the face.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Spoke to Lin's agents, Jim Tanner/Roger Montgomery, who say that Houston did NOT inform Lin that the No. 7 would be used for Melo images.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/484447119340609536">July 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
