Rockets general manager Daryl Morey took to Twitter yesterday to express his regret over letting Jeremy Lin go earlier this season.
“We should have kept [Jeremy Lin]. Did not know he was this good,” Morey said on his official Twitter feed while answering questions from fans. “Anyone who says they knew misleading U.”
Morey added, in a separate tweet, “Finally, really happy for [Lin]. Very hard working, nice & humble. He has a great, great future.”
Warriors owner Joe Lacob also tried to explain why his team — Lin’s hometown team — had let him go.
“I would be lying if I thought … he’d be this good — all of a sudden, explode on the scene,” he told San Francisco radio station KNBR.
“It’s just one of those things. It’s a great, perfect situation where he got an amazing opportunity. None of the other guards in New York were playing well.”
He added, “So I give him all the credit in the world, and obviously we wish we had him.”
Lin has burst onto the scene over the past week for the Knicks, averaging 25.3 points and 8.3 assists in wins over the Nets, Jazz and Wizards. The Rockets released Lin in late December in order to sign center Samuel Dalembert, who played for Seton Hall.
“Linsanity” has gone global.
Thanks to the incredible rise of the Knicks point guard, the NBA announced Thursday its Asian broadcast partners have added Knicks games to their television schedules in order to allow viewers there to watch Lin, the first Chinese-American NBA player.
Tonight’s game against the Lakers will be shown on Sina in China, while Taiwanese stations will televise games against Toronto, Sacramento, New Orleans, Atlanta and the Nets.
Over the course of their first 22 games on the MSG Network this season, the Knicks have averaged a 1.88 Nielsen household rating. But since Lin was inserted into the Knicks’ starting lineup Monday, viewership has skyrocketed.
Monday’s win scored a 2.68 rating, while Wednesday’s 107-93 win in Washington over the Wizards earned in a 2.41 rating. The averaged rating of 2.55 is a 36 percent jump over the season average.
The increased viewership for the network has come despite it’s bitter dispute with Time Warner Cable since New Year’s Day, leaving many viewers in the city and the surrounding regions unable to watch Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and Devils broadcasts on MSG and its subsidiary networks.