Jeremy Lin knew Houston Rockets offer Carmelo Anthony his jersey number
By Josh Hill
Carmelo Anthony took his free agent circus to Houston on Wednesday to meet with the Rockets before heading off to Dallas to meet with the Mavericks. Unlike the visit that Melo had with the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, there was some drama involved on Wednesday afternoon.
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One of the selling tools the Rockets used with Anthony was to show off a jersey to him that he would wear if he came to Houston. The only problem with the jersey is that it currently belongs to Jeremy Lin — a guy the Rockets will instantly trade the second they get wind Melo is committing to sign with them.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports, Jeremy Lin was fully aware ahead of time that the Houston Rockets were going ot be showing off his jersey number to the prize free agent sans Lin’s name.
Houston pre-informed Jeremy Lin of the use of his No. 7 on 'Melo recruiting images, source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 2, 2014
Lin’s agent tells a very different story though.
Spoke to Lin's agents, Jim Tanner/Roger Montgomery, who say that Houston did NOT inform Lin that the No. 7 would be used for Melo images.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 2, 2014
Lin wasn’t too pleased that the Rockets used his jersey as though he wasn’t part of the team at the moment because he still is and that was still technically his jersey. Lin’s a Harvard kid though so schoolyard shenanigans like the ones the Rockets are pulling are beneath him and so too is getting too made about it when he knows he’s likely to be traded soon anyways.