I have a feeling Knicks fans will be changing their tune (or at least should be) soon.
Lin caught lightning in a bottle. He came into a perfect situation, where he was in the perfect system, where the stars were hurt, and they needed him to step up, and where he was having an incredible hotstreak.
That led to an incredible 15 minutes of fame, and like some of the great entertainers who died at the height of their greatness, when he got injured, the flaws in his game had not yet been properly exposed, and everyone only remembers the good times.
I have a feeling once he gets settled in Houston, and the 15 minutes is up when he can't live up to the insane hype that was built on an unprecedented hot streak in a perfect situation, he is just going to be another overpaid backup PG, who no one wants.
Define overpaid. MSG's market cap jumped $71 million during his run and dropped $50 million yesterday alone after his departure was announced.
How can a guy who provides enormous return on investment be overpaid from a financial standpoint? You really think the Knicks won't make back his contract on his marketability alone? It is impossible to overpay Jeremy Lin.
Overpaid because I think it was his 15 minutes of fame. I think once the shine wears off the new toy, that marketability will all but disappear.
I think what people are missing is that he wasn't marketable just because he was Chinese American, he was marketable because he was Chinese American, and he was leading the Knicks on an unprecedented run.
However, before he got injured, the wheels had already slowed down, and now that D'Antoni is gone, and the league has a book on him, I have a feeling he will really fall back to earth. And at that point, I don't see him being much more marketable than any other mediocre backup PG.
He was a fad. And the Knicks got out before it crashed.