As soon as Jeremy Lin felt the tweak in his left hamstring Wednesday, he was upset. He knew he was hurt and got angrier as he made the walk back to his locker.
Then the Nets point guard looked down at the pink shoes he had worn to Barclays Center — the low-tops picked out for him by little Ava Lee, fighting leukemia — and he snapped out of his self-pity. He’ll be back to play for the Nets in a few weeks — they just have to stay afloat until then.
“At first, I was pretty upset. I was really upset. I came back to my locker, and I wore those pink shoes that day for Ava, and I immediately saw the shoes and started thinking about her, and I immediately ended my pity party,’’ Lin said. “It could be a lot worse. I’m still blessed that I’m going to be back on the court.”
But when?
Neither the Nets nor Lin have given a firm timetable. The Net only said he will be reevaluated in two weeks, a span of six games that started with Friday’s 99-95 loss to Lin’s former Hornets squad at Barclays Center.
“They basically said, ‘We’re going to reevaluate in two weeks,’ which means two weeks minimum. From there, what they’ve been saying is that it’s hard to tell with hamstring stuff,’’ Lin said. “It’s not always easy to know what is a good timeline. They really haven’t said anything other than to keep rehabbing, and in two weeks, we’ll see how you feel and go from there and make a plan.”
Lin never has had a hamstring injury before, but fans may recall the Knicks’ plan was somewhat muddled during his last serious injury, a meniscus tear in 2012. He’s hoping this injury doesn’t play out like that one did.
“It took a life of its own in terms of everybody weighing in on what they think I should do or shouldn’t do, how the story was spun in so many different ways, [to] see what the injury was and the timeline,’’ Lin said.
“Going into this one, it’s a new one for me, so I really am just listening to the doctors. Yeah, I’d love to know “Well, what is the timeline, what is this, what is that?” They are just telling me we just don’t know.”
Lin is averaging 15 points and 6.2 assists, and his 22.4 player efficiency ranking is second-best on the Nets. His leadership is even harder to quantify.
“Just his confidence, it’s like having your starting quarterback that you’ve been playing with, there’s a certain confidence to Jeremy, a certain leadership ability. … It helps the group in tough times,’’ said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, adding “obviously we want Jeremy back as soon as possible.”
Charlotte coach Steve Clifford knows about doing without Lin. The Hornets would have loved to have kept the guard, but the chance to run his own team — and get $36 million to do it — was too much for a driven competitor like Lin to turn down.
“It means a lot to anybody like him, because the reason why he’s good is he puts pride in how he plays,’’ Clifford said. “You want everybody to want to be like that. That’s one of his real strengths, is he’s motivated. Look, obviously coaching him we’ve had many conversations. But he has a strong belief in himself, and he wants to prove to people that he can be an upper echelon player.
“That’s how you should think. And the thing I appreciated was that as much as he wanted to start last year, he knew coming in what the situation was, what the role was. Not once [did he gripe].”If you go back and look, you could argue that our [three] best regular-season wins, he was our best player. … He’s a proven player. But you want guys who want [to start]. If you say I’m happy being the eighth guy, you’d better be 34, at the end. He’s not there.”