Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob admitted one of his biggest regrets in the NBA was letting go of Los Angeles Lakers guard Jeremy Lin, who signed with Golden State in 2010 as an undrafted free agent.
If Lacob could do things over, he indicated he would have given Lin more time to develop as a Warrior.
I had a coaching staff that didn't really use him and didn't see what we saw and he wound up going somewhere else and becoming Jeremy Lin," Lacob told reporters Wednesday, via LetsGoWarriors.com. "That's a little bit of a regret that I didn't trust my own gut just a little bit stronger when it came down to the decision. It was complicated and there were trade-offs. It's like anything else and I can't get into what those trade-offs were, but there were.
"You know, you hate to see something get away. What I hate more than anything else in the world for our business is to develop assets and then let them go somehow or have to let them go, because you have only so many resources."
Given Lacob's feelings about Lin, it's possible the two could reunite after the season. Lin can become an unrestricted free agent in July, and after the decision of Lakers coach Byron Scott to move him to the bench, his time in Los Angeles is likely finished.
"I believe I can be a starting point guard in the league, and I want to be. That's been a goal of mine for a long time. I'm not going to lie. It was disappointing when I heard about it," Lin said Sunday, via the New York Post. "This is one of the toughest situations I've been in ever since I played the game of basketball. It's tough. But I believe God has me for a reason and I just keep working ... I believe God (has a reason). There's a reason for everything. There really is even when the situations, they do look bleak, he turns it into something I didn't expect."
With Lin unlikely to re-sign with Los Angeles and the point guard free agent market expected to be saturated this summer, it's very possible Lin goes back to his beginnings and signs with the Warriors - if he's willing to stomach the idea of backing up incumbent starting 1-guard Stephen Curry.
As for why Lin lost his starting gig in Los Angeles, he said it was because Scott wanted him to work on his defense and his play-calling abilities.
