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| Anthony doesn't like Lin's contract. (Getty Images) |
After a long lockout that resulted in lost games partly caused by the players union fighting for more rights for restricted free agents and their contract leverage, Jeremy Lin's offer sheet with the Knicks has set Carmelo Anthony off.
"It's not up to me," Anthony told Newsday of matching the offer sheet. "It's up to the organization to say that they want to match that ridiculous contract."
Ridiculous? Or maybe Linsane, would you say?
Lin signed a three-year, $25.1 million offer sheet with the Rockets that's structured so that the final year kicks in with a $14.9 million "poison pill" in an effort to hammer the Knicks on the luxury tax in 2015 and persuade them not to match.
And it appears to potentially be working as the Knicks have dealt for Raymond Felton which could signal the end of Linsanity in New York.
"I'd love to see [Lin] back, but I think he has to do what's best for him right now," Anthony said.
Melo obviously isn't calling the price of the contract ridiculous or taking a shot at Lin, but just noting that the way it's allowed to be structured is a bit absurd. And it kind of is. It's specifically designed to discourage the Knicks, the team that hold Lin's Bird Rights and the team he played for last season, from re-signing him.
So what happens if the Knicks don't match? Is Melo going to be happy with Felton and Jason Kidd as his point guards?
"I mean, what other point guards are we going to get at this point?"
Ringing endorsement right there.
