Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin sat down to lunch with the ESPN employee who was fired last month for posting the “Chink in the Armor” headline on the network’s website.
According to Newsday, Lin ate with 28-year-old Anthony Federico on Tuesday on the team’s off day.
Though the Knicks said Wednesday Lin does not want to publicly discuss the meeting, Federico effusively praised the Asian-American star, calling him “a wonderful, humble person.”
Federico, who lives in Connecticut, was fired shortly after posting the offensive headline on ESPN.com following the Knicks’ first loss with Lin as starting point guard.
The headline was taken down after about a half hour, but several other websites and sports blogs had quickly pointed it out.
Federico apologized after his firing, saying his choice of words was “an honest mistake.”
He told Newsday the lunch was set up after a member of Lin’s family contacted him via email.
“The fact that he reached out to me,” Federico said. “The fact that he took the time to meet with me in his insanely busy schedule. … He’s just a wonderful, humble person. He didn’t have to do that, especially after everything had kind of died down for the most part.
“We talked more about matters of faith [and] reconciliation. We talked about our shared Christian values and what we’re both trying do with this situation. … We didn’t talk about the headline for more than three minutes.”
Lin missed Monday’s win over Milwaukee with a sore knee and will not play Wednesday night against Orlando.