Frazier turned the phrase moments before urging Knickerbockers’ management — that means James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan — to match the three-year, $25.1 million offer sheet Houston bestowed on Lin. The Knicks’ Hall of Famer, who actually has an NBA championship ring, was not the only member of the MSG Network cast, in Vegas Sunday covering a Knicks-Suns summer league game, advising ’Bockers brass against closing the curtain on Linsanity.
Even though all signs point to Lin leaving, the MSG voices were not giving up hope.
More often than not, the MSG Network reflects the views of the organization. Sometimes it’s subtle, other times the word is passed down directly from Mount Gulag.
While the voices’ strong support of Lin may not reflect what Dolan is thinking,...it is likely someone “upstairs” knew the gist of what Frazier, Spero Dedes and Allan Hahn were going to say about Lin.....
The Lin thing is different. Analyzing it, offering opinions on it, was a good way to hold viewers watching unwatchable summer league hoops. The only reason to tune in was to hear about Lin. Even when he wasn’t on the court, Lin was bringing eyeballs to MSG on a hot day in July as the voices expressed themselves with much conviction.
“Yeah, don’t worry about three years from now and what that might implicate (in terms of a luxury tax payment) for the Knicks,” Frazier said. “Worry about the present. Their future is now. I like what he (Lin) brought to the team.”
Frazier went on to offer the same opinion at least four more times. At one point Dedes even asked Clyde: “You’re on the record to say the right move is to bring Jeremy back?” Dedes must have wanted to make sure the entire free world — and Dolan — knew where Frazier stood on the matter. We halfway expected Dedes to ask Clyde to sign — in blood — a letter in support of Lin.
Dedes didn’t leave Frazier alone to twist....
“But nothing about Jeremy Lin is normal or traditional,” Dedes said. “The money he generates in so many different venues for the Knicks, it’s just an unusual situation.”
And as Hahn said: “To let him (Lin) walk without getting any compensation whatsoever, that’s something I’m not sure the Knicks really want to do.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/walt-frazier-thinks-ny-knicks-jeremy-lin-match-rockets-offer-article-1.1115863#ixzz20sfEJMwd
