The name Jeremy Lin is a bit taboo in the NBA these days. As with most unfulfilled promise, there is a bit of misdirected anger at Lin for him not being able to consistently be the player that saved (television coverage of) basketball in New York City and won the hearts of NBA fans across the country. Everyone fell in love with Lin, not just Knicks fans. He was the first Asian American to play in the NBA in decades. He slept on his brother's couch while being the best player in the world for a few weeks. He, somehow, had grumpy old basketball writers petitioning for him to be in the All-Star Game on the basis of about 12 pre-All Star break games. "Linsanity" was real and it was amazing. It didn't hurt that Lin had swagger, posing after game-winning shots like he knew it was going it. It also didn't hurt that he signed every autograph, did every interview, and has a delightful personality. For a two-week span, Jeremy Lin was basically operating on what we now know as "Step Curry levels". There were movies made, there were Sports Illustrated covers, and then there was the coaching change (Woodson for D'Antoni) and the drop in Lin's play, before Lin injured his knee and his season was over. Linsanity was dead. This past offseason, Lin signed a big-money contract for the Houston Rockets, who were starved to retain their Chinese audience after the retirement of Yao Ming: three years for roughly $25 million for a guy coming off knee surgery, who had previously been a nobody and who fell apart after D'Antoni was fired. It worked out about as well as you'd expect -- with Lin spending the third year of the contract on the bench for the Lakers. The name "Jeremy Lin" is going to be bandied about in free agency this offseason, and just about every fan of every team will recoil in horror when they hear it. He'll be called overrated. People will say his only value was getting hot for a few weeks in 2011 for a bad Knicks team. However, Mavs fans may want to consider embracing Lin -- if Monta Ellis isn't back, he might be exactly what the team needs - See more at: http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2015/6/9/8744213/jeremy-lin-profile-lakers-mavericks-free-agency
