Sorry for the new post guys, I'm on vacation and tethering on an iffy mobile signal. I'm a fan of Jeremy Lin and the Knicks. I'm pretty annoyed at what happened, but I'm still with this team. If I see Dolan on the street, I'll yell "idiot."
But I think this could have been handled better.
a) Knicks should've offered Lin the best they could, to show Lin that they were really trying to keep him. Then told him, "but we want to be fair to you too, so explore options and come back to us on July the 11th with the best offer sheet you have."
b) Then everyone in the Knicks organization should have kept their traps shut, denied all the rumors and not commented to Lin or the media on what they would or would not match.
This would have a) kept the Rockets or any other team in the dark b) reduced the probability of any bad blood because all the dealings would be based on official stuff, not what somebody said or did not say in media.
In other words, MSG/Knicks/Dolan PR guys and Knicks management are dumb for not anticipating what every economist knows -- information asymmetry can be made to work for your advantage.
I will miss Lin; he had the potential to be a core part of a Knicks team for a long time. But this is the team we have. I will scream at Melo if he comes back fat and shoots badly and at Stat if he defends poorly or at JR if he chucks. But that's what being a NY fan is.