When a player like Jeremy Lin comes out of nowhere and goes from bench player to one of the best point guards in the NBA — wait, never mind. That doesn’t happen. Anyway, Warriors coach Mark Jackson is one of the people who let Lin slip through his fingers. Nobody saw it coming, so you can’t really blame Jackson. Don’t let them fool you — the Knicks were about to cut Lin, too. That does not mean, however, that the fans don’t let Jackson hear about it.
“(Lin is) playing with great confidence and is not afraid of the moment,” Jackson said during an interview with 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. “That’s one thing I knew coming in. He was a guy that would compete and get after it. I’m happy for him because at the end of the day we have a point guard in Steph Curry. I was at Starbucks yesterday and a guy asked me about Jeremy Lin and Steph Curry and I asked him who was a better player. He paused and because he took the pause I just told him thank you, have a great day. Enjoy your cup of coffee.”
Curry is certainly more proven than Lin, who has only performed at a high level for six games. That being said, is Jackson saying he had to make a choice between Curry or Lin? It was either cut Curry or cut Lin? Of course not.
Again, I don’t blame Jackson and the Warriors for letting Lin walk. The type of spark he has given the Knicks was impossible to predict. But Jackson is reaching a bit by comparing him to Curry. With the way Lin has been playing, any team in the NBA would welcome him regardless of who their other guards are. Jackson probably shouldn’t be bragging about winning that mini-argument.
