Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 9:30 am  |  76 responses

JR Smith Thinks Jeremy Lin’s Contract Would Make Other Knicks Jealous


Jeremy Lin’s 3-year, $25 million contract offer from the Houston Rockets has already been called “ridiculous” by Carmelo Anthony, and now JR Smith says that it would be a source of jealousy in the Knicks’ locker room should New York elect to match it. Per SI: “I’m sure the city would love to have him back, but the team decided to go in a different direction,’ Smith said. ‘It’s nothing personal, I don’t think, just business. We just hope everybody can benefit from here. I don’t really know how Mr. Dolan feels at this point with what the luxury tax is now and what it used to be, but I just hope it works out the best for both of them.’ Asked if Lin’s contract could cause a challenging dynamic with his teammates, Smith agreed. ‘Without a doubt,’ he said. ‘I think some guys take it personal, because they’ve been doing it longer and haven’t received any reward for it yet. I think it’s a tough subject to touch on for a lot of guys.’”

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  • http://www.nba.com Shadojoker

    Mo money mo problems…and jealousy and envy comes along with it…Notorious BIG said it best!

  • T-Money

    i think an important point that’s being ignored is that lin didn’t win himself any point in the lockerroom when he sat the playoffs despite being 85% ready while guys like d-wade were getting their knee drained.

  • riggs

    @T-Money- he was told he couldnt play.

  • Mas

    JR Smith will NEVER generate one single dollar for the NYK that justify what he is getting paid. At the very least Lin would more the double his earnings with revenue for the owner of the team. Lin is a money making machine for himself, the team and the area around the arena. It won’t be the same money generated if he is in Houston but they have plenty of experience and contacts in the Asian markets.

  • L Dribble

    …waits for Lin fans say Lin would beat the Dream Team by himself. Can’t wait for this season to start.

  • pruzz

    these people make me sick…they don’t deserve 0.1% of what they earn, however they have the guts to make a fuss about in public…no wonder the NBA is going down the drain…

  • http://www.fullc0urtpress.com KHoliday

    IMO, Lin deciding not to play in the playoffs was a business move on his part. Why play against the one team that can expose your flaws before your big pay day. Everyone in his camp knew how valuable “LINSANITY” was. Why tamper with it. Regarding the Knicks matching his contract, if they do, its a pure business move with the hopes of that same “LINSANITY” generating money for the organization

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    I never looked at the Lin contract from this angle, but leave to J.R. to keep it 100%. Either way, someone – either the Knicks or Rockets – is going to end up on the wrong end of a trade. In addition to skyrocketing salaries, there is also a trend towards non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts. What used to be a “great league for a few elite players” is fast becoming a “mediocre league for a lot of players.”

  • Jer dawG

    It’s so hard to maintain a wholesome image, JR Smith. Tattoos, clubbing, photos of women. You don’t have burden of carrying a brand like Lin has to. The scrutiny and bad mouthing NYC media. Go club with your groupies and do crazy stuff. Don’t worry about Lin’s contract. He has more to deal with because he’s important to more entities than you or Melo.

  • http://www.slamonline.com phsyco B

    @pruzz. Really? 0.1 per cent. All the work it takes to get into the league and all the money the league makes and they don’t deserve 0.1 per cent of what they make. Thats a little ridiculous. And the league going down the drain- its the strongest its been in a long time. I don’t know you but I don’t like you. You just seem like a buzz kill. If the nba is going down the drain go check out tmz or some s##t. Jerk.

  • T-Money

    riggs – do you have a quote or a source on that? i remember vividly that he had been cleared… the knicks beat writers are still talking about it.

  • http://9gag.com/gag/4568611 Max

    A mediocre league for a lot of players?
    Drose, Westbrook, CP3, DWill, Rondo, Dwade, Kobe, LBJ, KD, Melo, Bosh, Love, BG, Dwight.
    Add all those mediocre players you’re talking about and that seems to be quite a good league to me..

  • FnF

    Who cares if Lin played or not in series? The earliest they said he could come back was games 5 or 6, seeing as though the series ended in 5 would you put your franchises cash cow in jeopardy for the sake of POSSIBLY winning ONE more game. Lin wasn’t going magically heal all of the other Knicks players as soon as he stepped on the court. He’d be playing his way back into shape, in a playoff game, vs a team that completely embarrassed him in the regular season. Retreat and fight another day.

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    ^^ When the NBA is offering non-guaranteed or partially-guaranteed contracts, it implies the non-talented players are dragging down the league for the elite players you mentioned above. In the past, all contracts were guaranteed.

  • ron

    It is all about business. Somehow the level of game is often not closely related to marketability.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    He was 85 percent.
    He decided not to chance it. No one told him he couldn’t play. He decided that he didn’t want to risk future damage. Perfectly legitimate and what I think was a smart move considering his financial situation at the time.
    Now, what doesn’t sit well with me is the idea that he did it so Miami wouldn’t expose him. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, that’s terrible. If he sat because he didn’t want to risk messing up his knee more before he got his first big payday then I don’t have a problem. If he sat because he was more concerned that Miami would drive down his asking price, then that’s shady.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Shock Exchange
    That’s bad logic. Contract guarantees aren’t about the player’s talent, they are about the business dynamics of the League. Look at the NFL where every player, even the elite ones, only has their contracts partially guaranteed.
    Teams are not guaranteeing deals because the new luxury tax rules make it less beneficial to have someone eating up roster space without being able to contribute. Players are adding more early termination clauses to their deals to give them more leverage in trade negotiations.

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    AllenP,

    The NFL is a different dynamic due to the high risk of a career-ending injury. Though the salaries are not guaranteed, the players receive the lion’s share of their pay in the form of upfront bonuses to account for it. Your comment about “less beneficial to have someone eating up roster space without being able to contribute” implies teams have players on the roster who cannot contribute, thus making my point that the NBA is no longer a league of a few elite players. That said, I still think the non-guaranteed contract trend is disturbing. And just to think, the NBA has somehow convinced you and the players that this is a good thing.

  • Mike

    @allenp you are right he lost that team when he didn’t come back 85 % healthy in playoffs who wants to play with someone like that

  • http://www.kb24.com The Seed

    Lin cannot play and the players know it. He played well for 15 to 20 games and thats it. I can argue Felton was playing better at point guard for the Knicks before the Melo trade and way better than any point of Lin’s 15 second career. Lin is a backup player and he needs to work on dribbling with left hand, shot selection, shooting accuracy and he needs to work on passing ability. Knicks caught a break with Houston’s dumb offer.

  • http://nba.com GP23

    His 38 point game vs the Lakers really put him on new heights.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Slick Ric

    He wasn’t 85%, that boy was scared to play against heat after what they did to him. He’s worth the contract though, because of all the money he’ll be producing with merchandise sales etc….

  • IGGI

    I wonder what Knicks’s bigger fan AKA “Spike Lee” has to say about this.
    I think if the Knicks what to win championship Lin is not the answer, but if they temporarily want to make a few bucks then get Lin.

  • mask

    J.R is living the life. I dont even know why Lin would even cross his mind. Go pop a bottle, chill with some broads, and be rich. Who cares about Lin and how much money he makes He more than likely aint havin as much fun as you are with your money. BE YOUNG AND DUMB UNTIL YOU GET OLD AND WISE (OR U GO BROKE)

  • Boom bostic

    @pruzz & anybody else- who the fk are you to say what God put on another mans plate is too much or isn’t what he deserves? Jr let the media size him up on this one.
    AND the nba isn’t going down, the nba is by far the most popular sport LEAGUE IN THE WORLD.

  • startown

    He is a good player, not a great player, you do not pay that kind of money for good players. I think he will spend time in the next year as a backup

  • bike

    Now just watch this guy drop from being the darling of the league to one of the most over-paid, over-hyped, and self-centered players to ever play the game. Nobody needed to see him fail against the Heat in the playoffs to know he gets shut down against good athletic defenders. The contract he is being offered is insane but it is what it is.

  • T-Money

    it is now being reported that james dolan crossed of jeremy lin after he went back to the rockets to up the ante after the knicks said they would match the initial offer. i don’t know how reliable that info is.

  • http://slamonline.com Datkid

    Allen, I don’t know about the whole miami would’ve exposed Lin thing. Miami already DID expose him with arguably hilarious results during Linsanity. I think he thought it wasn’t worth messing his knee up forever in a game that the knicks were going to lose w/ or w/o him… which i think is the right move.

  • http://redoftoothandclaw.ca/ niQ

    What happened to “They (the Knicks) will match any offer on Lin up to 1 billion dollars”? lol.

  • Ninja1

    Wow, just because of greed and jealousy? JLin dont take any credit for his wins. He always mention his team mates. The heat was on JLin from start to end. They even got Lebron and wade guarding him, that right there shows how much their scared of JLin.. You guys act like JLin cant approve his game ..He is very young and will learn through experience..Why would he play in the playoffs when he was not 100 percent? The heat is going to go at him twice as hard in the playoffs. No point at risking your health.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    this reworked contract will cost the Knicks $45Million for Lin alone in luxury tax money in 2014-15. And since none of their other players are tradeable, i don’t think they wanted to pay that money for a fad that will likely have lost its popularity by that point.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Shock Exchange
    The NFL has a hard cap. The luxury tax is pushing basketball closer to a hard cap.
    Thus you see the contracts become partially guaranteed.
    If a player gets injured in any way, or doesn’t fit with a scheme or the team senses a drop off, they will cut him in the NFL. That’s where the NBA owners would like to be one day. It has nothing to do with overall talent.
    But whatever, you’re not actually arguing a point, you’re just saying stuff.

  • clydesays

    Lin was a marketing pot of gold. That’s why Dolan was willing to match ‘any offer’. Sure, he was a decent player in a less than half season on games, but we’ve all seen that movie before. Once any player is successful, they’re scouted heavily & teams start guarding against your tendancies. Players are either unstoppable, or they improve/add to their game every year, or they fall out of the rotation. Felton is a decent PG for that team. Lin is a luxury at this point…

  • Surety

    Get out of here with that he skipped the playoffs cause Miami was gonna expose him bs. Sooner or later, the true caliber of any player will be revealed – you can’t hide that. Playing in the playoffs wasn’t gonna expose him anymore than it already has or will. Pundits here have already been saying that he was exposed ever since that Miami regular season game. Anyway, saying that he was 80-85% was stupid on his part, how can anyone put a percentage on the state of their health? It was absolutely clear that he really wanted to play, but was strongly advised against it. The kid may lack a lot of things (shooting, rose/westbrook-level athleticism, spurts of bad decision-making), but he has heart. Without that we wouldn’t even be talking about him. Anyway, this site is full of dumb commentators, I’m outtie.

  • http://www.reverbnation.com/tray24 T-Ray

    So with all those things he lacks Surety do you think he’s worth that kind of money? Wait nvm he said he’s outtie damn it

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    check out this quote from Kobe:
    Kobe Bryant on Shaquille O’Neal: “There were things I wanted to do, take my career to another level, that I was just uncapable of doing as long as we were playing together, which I was fine with doing until I heard him say a few times ‘Kobe is not gonna be as successful without me.
    It isn’t exactly shocking, but I think it’s the first time he admitted that he wanted Shaq gone because otherwise he was never going to get his true shine.
    Although, he still counts those three rings with Shaq as “his” from what I’ve noticed.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    when is that from?

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Man, Lin fans are rapidly approaching the level of Kobe fans. Right now they are just equal to Rose fans.

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    AllenP,

    “Hard cap,” “soft cap,” you’re just using technical terms that lead to nowhere. NFL and NBA contracts have nothing in common because they are two different sports and the risk of injury is different, like I pointed out earlier. You and a few others have tried to portray me as a “killjoy” who doesn’t want to see kids get paid. I am all for players getting paid their worth, particularly players who are deserving. I always feared that the recent influx of “Imaginary Giants” would drag down the rest of the NBA. As youngens have not panned out, owners no longer want to pay guaranteed money to guys like Andray Blanche or Darius Miles. AllenP, show me a trend of when non-guaranteed contracts starting becoming envogue, and I guarantee you the trend is highly correlated to the influx of college players.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    nobody is trying to portray you as “killjoy” it’s “moron” – that’s what we are shooting for. but you are doing a better job then we ever could.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Redd

    @allen chill we’re currently at Kobe level, don’t steal our shine!

  • Kadavour

    yea Allen, please source. on another note, NOTHING of Jeremy Lin’s contract is about his basketball talents, and it would be silly to think otherwise. Houston had Yao. They had that Asian market pumping $ into their club. Lin is just that to them, advertising dollars.

  • peregrine

    So disputing the claim that Lin ducked the playoffs to avoid from getting exposed is rabid fanaticism? He was weeks removed from knee surgery and wasn’t in great shape. That’s common sense. And it’s also common sense that he’s getting paid cause he makes money for team owners, but that fact is also dependent on how well he pays. You don’t see teams fighting over each other for the services of Yi Jian Lian.

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    Somebody wants attention from me so badly but I’m Sargeant Schultz out here Hoss: “I don’t see you … I don’t hear you … I don’t know you.”

  • http://www.slamonline.com Redd

    No 3rd person talk today huh.

  • B.I.G.

    There Is No Linsanity Without New York. We Gave Him That Name Now He’s Just Lin, Again.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Source was the Hoops Hype rumor page, which got it from Yahoo.com I would assume it’s Adrian Wojo because that’s Kobe’s boy.
    Shock Exchange
    The cap is the main reason the NFL doesn’t have guaranteed deals. If you have a hard cap, you can’t spend over a certain amount no matter what. That means your roster is hurt more by guys who are injured, and the goal is to assemble the cheapest possible players to do the job you need them to do. Only a few “elite” game changing stars get big contracts and loads of guaranteed money.
    That’s where the NBA is moving because the new luxury tax operates like a defacto hard cap for most teams.
    Also, teams have always had partial guarantees on deals. Chauncey Billups had a partially guaranteed deal, and he signed that deal under the prior CBA. Several other players, particularly older ones, have always had deals like that. Those deals have also always been normal for free agents who are training camp signees. That’s why you have a date in the League where marginal players get cut because beyond that point their contracts become fully guaranteed.
    You have never backed up your point about college with solid points and you’ve ignored all evidence that contradicts your point. That’s just bad business. It’s not about being a killjoy, it’s about showing poor discussion skills.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Sargeant Schultz “i see nothing, i was not here, i didn’t even get up this morning” – “i hear nothing, i see nothing, i know nothing!” – close though.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Do y’all think the 96 Dream Team would beat the 92 Dream Team? My homeboy was adamant that 96 would win a series against any other Dream Team. Shaq, Payton, Penny, Kemp, Barkley, Miller, Richmond, Pippen, Grant Hill, Hakeem, is a crazy squad man.

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