Jeremy Lin Wanted To Turn Down $29 Million Rockets Offer

Knicks fans look back fondly on the "Linsanity" era of 2012 in New York and many still regret that it only lasted half a season. As it turns out, Jeremy Lin does too.

Appearing on Pablo Torre Finds Out, Lin revealed the circumstances that led to him joining the Houston Rockets on a $29 million deal. He explained that the Rockets made him an offer and he hoped the Knicks would match it, but his agent told him they weren't likely to do so.

Lin said that he was ready to take less money from the Knicks but that the Knicks were not willing to make any offer on him whatsoever, let alone matching the one Houston offered.

"I was crushed and my agent is telling me, ‘Be prepared that they won't match.' And I'm like, ‘There's no way. There's no way. I got to go back to New York,'" Lin said.

"They could have offered me three years, $9 million, but there wasn't even that offer on the table. And when the Rockets offer came in, the first question I asked my agent is, ‘Are the Knicks going to match this?'

"I was like, ‘Can you go back to the Rockets and tell them we won't accept this offer? We only want a lower offer.' I tried to take less. I was trying to sabotage the Rockets offer." "I remember it vividly. I call my agent back and I'm like, ‘Okay, the offer came through. No, we have to get a less lucrative offer because I got to go back to New York'"

"Finally I'm like, ‘Can we just not accept their offer?' And he's like, ‘No, we can't not accept their offer because the Knicks refuse to give us any offer. You have zero offers on the table. You have one offer and you have to accept it and leave it to the Knicks to match or not'"

"It was kind of difficult to see that people thought I willingly left the Knicks or did it for the money or whatever. I would have played for significantly less if that meant staying with the Knicks because my heart was always here."

Who to blame?

Some fans were skeptical of Lin's claim, asserting that it doesn't make any sense that he'd take less money to play in a state with a much higher income bracket. But most people pointed to one player in particular for sabotaging Lin's return: Carmelo Anthony.

"Melo didn't want him on the team, simple as that," one user remarked.

"(Carmelo) said Jeremy Lin is taking away attention from me and I can't have that," wrote another.

"It was always insane to me that the Knicks didn't make an offer or match - in merch alone Jeremy would have made the franchise a lot of money," former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang remarked.

A few fans have also theorized that Lin's agent might have scuttled a return to the New York.

Nevertheless, Lin's career fizzled out soon after he left New York. He lasted two years in Houston then bounced around the league for five years and then finishing his playing career overseas.

What could have been...

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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 2:51 PM.