By Steve Popper, The Record (Hackensack N.J.) –
It was just Thursday afternoon that Jason Kidd sat on a makeshift stage at the Knicks’ practice facility talking about being a leader. At 39 years old, joining a team where he was anticipating helping Jeremy Lin in the backcourt, he even raved, “To have the chance to mentor a very good player, to be able to share what I’ve learned the last 18 years, is something I’ve been looking forward to.”
But just two days later that plan, serenely laid out like a not-far-off retirement plan, was thrown into chaos.
First, the possibility of Lin being here was suddenly not such a certainty. You remember the words of Knicks officials — Mike Woodson announcing “absolutely” that Lin would return and even declared him the starter, and normally tight-lipped general manager Glen Grunwald insisted he didn’t see a way that Lin wouldn’t be back.
Well, when the 25-game wonder renegotiated the offer sheet he’d agreed on with the Houston Rockets, signing a deal Saturday that would cripple the Knicks financially — laying a massive luxury-tax hit on the budget line of Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan — suddenly there was a way he could wind up taking Linsanity to Houston.
But Linsanity quickly has been replaced by insanity. The mentoring program run by Kidd? Well, it’s off to a rocky start since just hours after the Knicks swung a deal that will bring point guard Raymond Felton to the Garden, putting Lin on notice that there is a price ceiling on T-shirt sales, Kidd was arrested in Southampton, N.Y., on a charge of driving while intoxicated — after crashing his car into a telephone pole.
So to recap: Lin might be gone, Felton is on his way in and Kidd is out of the hospital and facing an ugly charge. Goodbye serenity — hello chaos.
What could make it worse? Well, why don’t we have the players on the roster weigh in?
Practicing with the US Olympic team, Carmelo Anthony — who has had to listen to critiques of why he, as a five-time All-Star, would not change his game to suit the undrafted, twice-waived, three-week phenom — was asked about the challenge of the offer sheet to Lin.
“It’s not up to me,” Anthony told reporters. “It’s up to the organization to say that they want to match that ridiculous contract.”
Though that might draw anger from Lin’s faithful fans, the fact is it is a ridiculous contract. The Rockets structured the deal with a $14.9 million payout in the final year of the three-year, $25.1 million offer. Even without the luxury-tax implications — which are significant — that is a ludicrous amount to pay for a player who has accomplished so little. He started 25 games and even refused to come back from injury at what he described as 85 percent when Baron Davis and Iman Shumpert were carried off the court in the playoffs.
J.R. Smith, who signed for just $2.8 million with the Knicks for next season, told SI.com that the deal could cause a problem with his more established teammates: “Without a doubt. 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.”
You don’t think that would come back to create friction if Lin struggled in New York? He still may be back. Though rumors have flown that the Knicks won’t match the offer sheet, one person with knowledge of the team’s plans said that the decision would go to “the eleventh hour.” The decision is multifold: it involves not just his limited on-court performance, but the cost and the marketing potential. The Harvard economics grad knows that, too, already having trademarked Linsanity.
Well, some ambitious Knicks fan should be trademark “Insanity” in the same lettering and colors, because that’s what has taken hold at the Garden. Money never has seemed to be an issue for Dolan, but he has to take notice not only of the massive contract and luxury tax, but that the player he helped create not only went out and found a deal, but then worked with Rockets to rebuild it in order to do the most harm for the Knicks.
But nothing is without risk, as Kidd’s apparently foolish behavior in the early morning hours Saturday proved. If the veteran leader gives you that, well, there simply isn’t a sure thing to count on in New York.
There won’t be any press conferences any time soon to declare the Knicks’ intentions. No one will be saying much of anything, as evidenced by Woodson’s sudden silence Saturday in Las Vegas at the Knicks’ summer league game. Words can come back to haunt you — whether they are the Knicks’ declarations about Lin, Anthony’s and Smith’s words about the player who still could be their teammate or even Kidd’s promises of leadership and mentoring.
Once again, as it has been for far too long, the circus rules at the Garden.
