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For a short period of time Jeremy Lin was the talk of the NBA as he captured the world’s attention with his spectacular play. He went from cut, to D-Leaguer, to the player that saved the Knicks season, all in a matter of months. Then he went to the guy who was watching New York in the playoffs from the bench because of injury. Now he is leaving the city that embraced him and heading to Houston. After receiving an offer sheet from the Rockets with a “poison pill” in the contract, the Knicks decided they couldn’t make the
financial commitment to a 23-year-old point guard that fills seats, is incredibly popular, and has a ton of upside. If you sense some sarcasm in that last sentence you would be right. While the Rockets are taking a risk in giving a relative unknown commodity a three-year contract because of one moth of great basketball, it’s nothing compared to the risk New York is taking by watching Lin walk out the door and getting nothing in return. Well, I guess the Knicks could justify the move by saying they brought in an overweight point guard in Raymond Felton and an aging center in Marcus Camby. Jeremy Lin joined KBME in Houston with Charlie Pallilo to talk about the revised offer sheet Houston gave him, his response to people saying giving him the contract he got was risky, leaving New York, what his strengths are as a player, whether his number of turnovers is a concern of his and if he felt he could’ve played in Houston the first time around.
On the revised offer sheet:
“Even on July 12th I thought I was signing the other one. I didn’t really know until much before but it was the only offer sheet or contract I had. That’s kind of how I happened.”
What he makes of people saying Houston took a big risk by giving him the large deal he received:
“I think there’s definitely a lot of unknowns when it comes to me and I think I’m far from being established and far from being proven. I appreciate that they made that investment in me and I’m just trying to get better every day and I know I have a long way to go.”
On leaving New York:
“I’m excited to be here and that’s the biggest thing. Looking back I’m so thankful for this past year that I had in New York with the Knicks and the fans and that will always be something that I remember and I will always cherish that. Now I’m here, now I’m in Houston and I’m very excited to be here and can’t wait to get this season started and to meet all the guys and hopefully start to build towards where we want to end up at.”
What his strengths are:
“I have a lot to work on but in terms of my strengths it’s just driving, being aggressive and finding guys and making plays.”
If he thinks he needs to improve when it comes to taking care of the ball:
“Definitely a big knock on my game that I have on myself and definitely something that I need to get a lot better at. Just being focused, being strong with the ball and not exposing it and then not making lazy passes and being nonchalant sometimes.”
If he thinks he was good enough to make the Houston Rockets the first time around:
“I’m biased but I always thought that I could play for this team, that I could help this team but I think if anybody doesn’t think that of themselves then it’s tough. I understood too that it’s tough and I knew Kyle (Lowry), Goran (Dragic), and Jonny (Flynn) could all play basketball and they’re all really good. We just had a lot of point guards all here at the same.”
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