Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony was an incredible basketball player at his peak, but he was also accused of not being the greatest teammate. The one example that’s often brought up is Anthony allegedly not being happy about Jeremy Lin’s success during the Linsanity era in 2012 when they were teammates on the New York Knicks.
Anthony and Lin finally sat down for a conversation recently, where they cleared the air, and the latter then appeared on the former’s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast. At one point, they started talking about the changes caused by the guard’s rise.
“It was difficult,” Anthony said. “When you go from a meeting of three, me, Amar’e [Stoudemire], Tyson [Chandler], that’s leadership of that team. Everything comes through us as far as ideas, defensively offensively… what do we want to do, that’s just natural conversation that you should be having with the coach and all of that. Trying to figure this out.
“Then, a snap of a finger, you got him a part of that meeting,” Anthony continued. “So now it’s like, ‘Okay, what’s happening here?'”
Lin admitted he was surprised by his inclusion.
“Before the meeting, I’m like, ‘Wait, y’all want me in this meeting?'” Lin said. “… I make 1/150th of what you guys make.”
Anthony made it clear that he, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Tyson Chandler didn’t necessarily see this as an issue, but they had to adjust.
“We got another face in here,” Anthony said. “We got another body. We got another mind in here, which nobody was used to. Because now he becomes a priority and strategy, and figuring this s*** out. And somebody who’s on a 10-day, a non-guaranteed contract, that’s a lot of pressure.
“So I tried to blanket that from him,” Anthony added. “Leave him alone. F*** that. No, he ain’t doing that. Jeremy Lin, go get the KFC deal. Why you turning the Mercedes deal, the BMW? Like, f*** that. Go get a 100 million.”
While Anthony was pretty happy about this conversation, the fans weren’t exactly buying it. They called him out in the comments section, and he responded to some of them.
Another fan said they never believed Anthony was the reason Lin was gone from the Knicks after the 2011-12 season, but they completely believe it now after seeing this episode.
One fan is convinced Anthony was hating on Lin back then.
A fan believes Anthony was jealous of Lin.
A fan of Anthony is looking at him differently after seeing this episode.
You’d imagine Anthony didn’t anticipate this kind of reaction. There appears to be greater belief than ever now that he wasn’t happy about Lin’s success.
Lin had gone undrafted in 2010 and didn’t make much of an impression as a rookie with the Golden State Warriors. He was then buried down the depth chart at point guard for the Knicks at the start of his sophomore season as well, and it would have surprised no one if he had gotten cut at some point.
With the Knicks losing and the guards in front of Lin failing to run head coach Mike D’Antoni’s system, though, he was given his opportunity and took full advantage. He averaged 24.6 points and 9.2 assists during a 10-game stretch in February 2012, and took over the NBA.
Anthony was out with a groin injury for much of this stretch. He is said to have hurried back from it, and Linsanity was basically over once he returned to the lineup.
Lin still played fairly well after that, but wasn’t hitting those heights again. He then tore his meniscus in March and missed the rest of the season.
Lin was a restricted free agent after the season, and the Knicks were expected to bring him back. They wouldn’t match the three-year, $25 million deal the Houston Rockets offered, though. Lin would try to turn down the Rockets and was willing to take less to stay with the Knicks, but they didn’t put a deal on the table.
And so with that, the Lin era ended in New York in a flash. Linsanity would prove to be the high point of Knicks basketball post the Patrick Ewing era, until this recent stretch with Jalen Brunson.
