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It's official: Jeremy Lin is heading to Houston, leaving heartbroken Knicks fans behind. The Knicks, just before the deadline, decided not to match the Rockets' three-year, $25 million offer to the restricted free agent, reports the Huffington Post. If the Knicks had opted to match the Rockets' deal, which contains a third-year payment of $14.9 million, it would have been hit with at least another $35 million or more in "luxury tax" penalties, notes the New York Times.
"The Rockets deserve a lot of credit for the way they've gone about this," the chief of SportsCorp tells AP. "It was extremely intelligent—with an assassin's touch." Lin, 23, played 26 games as the Knicks' primary point guard last season, and became the team's most popular player in a decade. Houston had Lin in training camp but passed on him before he was picked up by the Knicks. "Extremely excited and honored to be a Houston Rocket again!!" Lin tweeted last night. "Much love and thankfulness to the Knicks and New York for your support this past year—easily the best year of my life."
