NBA

Lin ‘excited’ to be with Rockets, not upset with Knicks

It wasn’t exactly the type of press conference that will live in Linfamy.

Either in New York or in Houston.

Jeremy Lin met the media in his newest adopted hometown yesterday, and if the point guard truly didn’t want to leave the Knicks, as he told Sports Illustrated this week, he said all the right things in his return to the Rockets.

“Coming into free agency, I didn’t expect to be anywhere besides New York,” the 23-year-old point guard at the packed press conference. “I wouldn’t have signed an offer sheet with Houston if I wasn’t excited about playing here.

“It has been an unbelievable ride. … I still have to kind of remind myself that this is all actually happening sometimes. … For me to be here right now, I’m definitely excited and thankful. ’’

Lin said he grew familiar with the Rockets during training camp last season and likes the way coach Kevin McHale wants the game played. Lin rejoins the team which cut him last Christmas Eve but has now agreed to pay him $25.1 million over the next three seasons.

“[McHale’s] system is what I believe in,” Lin said. “Let the defense feed the offense, play fast … allow the ball to find the right person for the shot.

“That’s what I believe in. Let everything happen naturally.’’

Which is not exactly the way it was likely to go had he returned to the Knicks where “letting everything happen naturally’’ means giving the ball to Carmelo Anthony and watching him go one-on-one.

As for Anthony, who last week called the Rockets’ offer to Lin “ridiculous,” and J.R. Smith, who said his Knicks teammates would be jealous of Lin’s contract had he returned to the Garden, Lin said he loved both players.

“I never had any issue with them,” he said. “I just know they were very supportive and great teammates last year and that’s kind of it.”

Lin also responded to the notion he didn’t want to play during last season’s playoffs after having his knee operated on several weeks earlier.

“Obviously, I wanted to play,” he said. “To me, mentally, it was ‘I’m ready. I should go.’ It was something I wanted to do, but was unable to do.’’

And if Linsanity as we know it is truly over, its namesake seems OK with it.

“We’re not focused on how many articles are going to be written about us or how big the spotlight is,” Lin said. “We want to win, we want to play together and we want to have fun doing it. … We’re going to do our best to make that happen.”