Ridiculousness

Jeremy Lin is now a member of the Houston Rockets.

Again.

Officially.

And I couldn't be happier.

As a basketball fan.

As a fantasy basketball owner.

And as a guy who finds it completely impossible to root for the overrated shooting star titled Carmelo Anthony.

There’s never been a player who has accomplished less, by thinking he's more, than Lin's former teammate Carmelo Anthony.

Since joining the Association in 2003, Anthony has been the poster child for that old golf saying:

You drive for show, but you putt for dough.

Despite scoring nearly 16,000 points in the regular season, Carmelo has never been able to win the big one.

Actually he’s never been able to win the little one either.

Sure, he’s made the playoffs every year.

But considering that more than half of the league does that, that’s not really saying much.

And in every one of those years, except one, Carmelo was eliminated in the first round.

In fact, Anthony’s post-season win percentage is the lowest of any NBA player who has ever laced up the sneakers.

Well any player who has played 50 or more playoff games.

But still.

Even with that abysmal record, that hasn’t stopped NBA owners from throwing money at him.

LOTS of money at him.

In 2007, the Denver Nuggets signed Anthony to a five-year $80 million dollar deal.

Anthony rewarded the team by demanding a trade in 2010.

And then again in 2011.

In February of that year, the Nuggets finally gave in.

Shipping Anthony to New York for five guys, three draft picks and a chunk of cash.

Before the ink was dry on the deal, the Knicks rewarded Carmelo with a three-year contract extension.

Worth another $65 million.

Carmelo may not know much about winning in the NBA, but he certainly knows how to get paid.

And maybe that’s what has me so fired up about this story.

When the word came out a few days ago that Houston had offered Lin a three-year deal worth $25 million.

Everybody had an opinion.

Especially Carmelo.

When asked what he thought of the offer, Anthony called it “ridiculous.”

Ridiculous!

Really?

Generous, maybe.

Magnanimous, perhaps.

But ridiculous?

Paying a guy like Anthony who has a whopping 17 playoff wins over nine seasons nearly $22 million a year.

That’s ridiculous.

Paying the most marketable NBA player since Michael Jordan a third of that.

That’s plain brilliant.

The fact that the Knicks didn’t match the Lin offer, or perhaps couldn’t match the offer.

Because they had too much cash locked up in Anthony’s monster contract.

Well, that’s nobody’s fault but the Knicks.

If anything is ridiculous about this situation, it’s the fact that  the Knicks were sitting on a goldmine.

And they flushed it down the sewer.

New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia.

And Jeremy Lin is Chinese.

Holy Gene Rayburn Batman.

We have a match.

Unfortunately the Knicks took that perfect match and lit their franchise on fire.

Don’t blame Jeremy Lin for signing the best deal he could.

And don’t blame the Rockets for giving it to him.

Even if Houston had no idea what they had in Lin when they released him just eight months ago.

Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted as much back in February:

Daryl Morey ‏@dmorey

@jlin7 Did not know he was this good.  Anyone who says they knew misleading U 

I guess he ran out of characters.

But the point was well taken.

Jeremy Lin came out of nowhere.

Well, he came out of Harvard.

Which in the NBA, is out of nowhere.

And the fact that he’s an Asian point guard.

Well, that really stacked the odds against him.

But during the 25 starts he made with the Knicks this past season, Lin showed that he can really play in this league.

Like February 4th.

When he scored 25 points off the bench to beat the Nets.

Or February 6th.

When he had 28 points and eight assists to beat the Jazz.

Or February 8th.

When he had 23 and 10 in a win against Washington.

Or February 10.

When he dropped 38 on Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Or February 11.

When he put up 20 and eight against Minnesota.

Or February 14.

When he had 27 and 11 in Toronto, including a buzzer-beating three-point shot to win it.

Or February 15.

When he put up a career-high 13 assists to beat Sacramento.

Seven straight wins.

Six of which were without Anthony.

Who was nursing a “lingering groin injury.”

And when Anthony did come back.

The team lost eight out of 10.

Including six straight at one point.

Coincidence.

I think not.

Now only time will tell if Jeremy Lin can recapture the magic that swept through New York five months ago.

The Linsanity, if you will.

But the bottom line for me is that Jeremy Lin is everything that is right about sports.

While Carmelo Anthony is everything that is wrong.

And anybody who says anything different, is just plain ridiculous.