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Rose, Lin top NBA’s jersey sales
Move over, Kobe and LeBron: Only Derrick Rose could top Linsanity when it came to jersey sales over the past year.
The league’s reigning MVP has the top-selling jersey at the NBA Store and nbastore.com since April 2011, the NBA says Thursday. Knicks guard Jeremy Lin was No. 2, despite his merchandise not even being available until his stunning breakthrough in February.
Bryant was third and James fourth, unusually low spots for two of the NBA’s biggest superstars. Bryant had been No. 1 six times and James twice since 2001.
Carmelo Anthony rounded out the top five, helping the Knicks finish second in team merchandise sales. The Bulls were No. 1 for the first time since April 2001.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Volvo signs Lin to promote its cars worldwide
New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin has signed a two-year contract with automaker Volvo to promote the company’s cars around the world — especially in Asia.
The Chinese-owned company said in statement Tuesday that Lin, a guard who shot to stardom this season, will participate in Volvo’s worldwide corporate and marketing activities as a brand ambassador.
China is a major market for the NBA. Earlier this month, the Miami Heat’s Lebron James agreed to promote Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream in Asia.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Mike D’Antoni resigns as Knicks coach – NBA – Yahoo! Sports
Mike D’Antoni has resigned as coach of the New York Knicks, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
D’Antoni and Knicks owner James Dolan agreed on Tuesday to end his three-plus-years run as Knicks coach, a source said. “It was a mutual decision to no longer coach the Knicks … conflicting visions of the club’s future,” the source said…
Mike D’Antoni resigns as Knicks coach – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.
How to Fix the New York Knicks
The New York Knicks have lost their last six games in a row. They are 18-24 and currently in 9th place in the Eastern Conference standings. Superstar forwards Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire are each having their worst season as a professional and Jeremy Lin is trying his hardest to make us forget about Lin-Sanity with his nervous play and poor shooting. The good defense the Knicks played during their hot streak in February disappeared the moment Antony returned from injury. Head coach Mike D’Antoni has taken a lot of blame for not having the courage to bench Anthony when he does not conform to the play book. So who is to blame for this Knicks meltdown? More importantly, how can the Knicks be fixed?
The problem seems to be rooted in the Knicks huge investments in the declining Stoudemire and the unpredictable Anthony. There have been reports that Anthony is not happy with D’Antoni’s play calling and would like to be traded. Stoudemire looks like hes running up and down the court with cement boots on and has not had the highlight filled season he is accustomed to. However, when Anthony was out with an injury and Lin was running D’Antoni’s offense Stoudemire looked good and did not complain about his numbers because the Knicks were winning. Anthony returned never spoke out in favor of the improved Knicks offense. Instead he always mentioned how he’s being asked to do he has never done. According to certain reports, Anthony and point guard Baron Davis would prefer to run an offense that runs through them instead of having Lin make the decisions. These reports also mention that D’Antoni may have lost the respect of his players.
The Knicks poor on court chemistry is with out a doubt a result of their broken locker room. The only viable solution seems to let D’Antoni walk after his contract expires at the end of the season. The worse part about the Knicks struggling is that fans always have to wait til next year for some sort of stability with the franchise. Hopefully the Knicks can find a coach that can command the attention and respect of his players. And if they can not find that guy, lets bring Larry Brown back.
Ex-Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith chooses to play for New York Knicks – ESPN New York
A short time ago, the New York Knicks had a lot of question marks. Now it appears they’re building a juggernaut.
Shooting guard J.R. Smith tweeted Friday that he has decided to join Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and phenom Jeremy Lin in New York.
“New York Knicks It Is!” he posted on his Twitter account…
Read More: Ex-Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith chooses to play for New York Knicks – ESPN New York.
Nightly Notable: Lin-sanity travels to Toronto!
Jeremy Lin has done it again! This time with a game winning three point shot against the Toronto Raptors. Lin also had 27 points and 11 assists and made Amar’e Stoudemire’s return very smooth. Stoudemire scored 21 points and had 9 rebounds in the victory. Lin’s recent success is undoubtedly because of his resolve, faith and supreme confidence on the court.
The Jeremy Lin Phenomenon
After two big games in two big wins for the struggling New York Knicks Jeremy Lin has become the toast of New York City. What’s remarkable about this is that the NY Giants just won the Super Bowl and Lin has still found his space in the sports section.
Lin’s surprisingly exceptional play comes just at the right time for the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony has been fighting injuries for most of the season while Knicks point guard Toney Douglas seems to be fighting with the rim that he hits constantly with his errand three point shots. Rookie guard Iman Shumpert is talented but has failed to run the Knicks offense effectively.
Eventually, coach D’Antoni got tired of his players trying to get him fired with their lethargic play and gave Lin the keys to the Knicks offense which now looks like a Corvette instead of a 1995 Buick Regal.
Although Lin has only played like a superstar for two games, the MSG crowd has embraced the 6’3″ guard from Harvard. His smile and his ability to run the pick and roll are hard to ignore. There is no doubt that his Asian and Ivy League roots play a part in the buzz surrounding him and probably even played a role in the opportunity he was given to show his talent up to this point. Lin has finally been given a shot at being a starting point guard and so far has a A+.
The absence of Baron Davis and the absence of Toney Douglas’ talent will definitely give Lin an opportunity to prove to the league that these two games are not a fluke. Hopefully he can be an All-Star guard for the Knicks for the next ten yeard. However, if that does not work out he can always become president.
NY Knicks Carmelo Anthony still injured, but says coach Mike D’Antoni has ’100 percent’ support from players – NY Daily News
Just as Mike D’Antoni admitted that he is feeling some heat as his team spins out of control, the embattled Knicks’ coach got some support from Carmelo Anthony.
“Any time teams are losing, that’s the first thing that comes to mind is the coach, but we don’t talk about that,” Anthony said Monday in Greenburgh. “We support Mike 100%. He’s here with us, we’re here with him. We’re going to roll with that.”
Besides publicly supporting the coach, Anthony gave the Knicks hope that he could return soon, possibly Tuesday night when the Knicks (7-13) host the Pistons (4-17)…
The NY Knicks have struggled all year with scoring, turnovers and playing 48 minutes. They need a point guard but will have to settle with Baron Davis until they draft one or trade for one. The combination of Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony was supposed to make the Knicks championship contenders but now they’re just fighting for Draft Lottery position. The Knicks wont be fixed with a D’Antoni nix.
Knicks target backup point guard, could deal Toney Douglas to Minnesota Timberwolves for Jonny Flynn
The Knicks have had preliminary discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves about a trade for point guard Jonny Flynn.
No formal deal is in place, but the Knicks are debating whether Flynn, the sixth overall pick of the 2009 draft would be a viable option to back up Chauncey Billups for at least one season…
Knicks target backup point guard, could deal Toney Douglas to Minnesota Timberwolves for Jonny Flynn.
Glimpse into the 2011 NBA playoffs
Victor Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images
This season’s version of the NBA playoffs have already featured the elimination of the western conference’s top seeded San Antonio Spurs, a 46 point game from the Orlando Magic’s All-Start center Dwight Howard and a 40-foot three-point bank shot from the Atlanta Hawks sixth man scoring machine Jamal Crawford that helped eliminate Howard’s Magic. The Boston Celtics swept the injury depleted New York Knicks while Kevin Durant lead the Oklahoma City Thunder over the New York Knicks, I mean Denver Nuggets. The championship contending Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls and defending champion Los Angeles Lakers also advanced to the second round.
At the beginning of the season I predicted the south beach marriage of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh would lead the Miami Heat to a championship this season. That prediction was looking pretty bad when the Heat started the season 9-8 and lost their first three match-ups against the defending eastern conference champions, the Boston Celtics. However, the Heat won their last regular season game against Celtics pretty convincingly and now lead the squad from Bean town 2-0 in their eastern semifinal best of 7 series.
The Heat have looked super human and the Celtics have looked their age. While Miami moves up, down and over the court at will, the Celtics have looked…..old. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are all fighting injuries while Rajon Rondo has looked disinterested on defense the past two games.
The Heat will capture this series in 5 games and will defeat the Chicago Bulls in the eastern conference finals. As long as Carlos Boozer continues to play poorly, the Bulls will have no chance to reach the NBA finals.
