Knicks Want to Keep Lin & Control ‘Bird Rights’

Knicks GM Glen Grunwald said the team wants to keep point guard  Jeremy Lin going forward and remains hopeful that the upcoming “Bird Rights” hearing on Lin and Steve Novak will go their way.

On a conference call to announce Mike Woodson as the team’s coach, Grunwald said he “can’t see a scenario where we don’t keep Lin,” a restricted free agent this summer.

“The rules are what they are and that’s what they say,” Grunwald added.

“We can keep him if we want and we do want to keep him. And I believe that Jeremy had a great experience here and I believe he wants to come back.”

Lin’s agent, Roger Montgomery, recently told the New York Post there was no guarantee that Lin would return even though the Knicks control his rights.

Knicks Extend Woodson, Say They Never Considered Phil

Saying Mike Woodson “was our guy,” Knicks GM Glen Grunwald told the world the franchise never considered contacting Phil Jackson to lead them going forward and instead opted to give Woodson a multi-year extension.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed and Woodson called the matter “private.” Reports have it at three years.

“We thought he was the right guy for this team at this team,” Grunwald said on a conference call. “Obviously, there’s some great coaches out there that had we opened the search would have been called, namely Phil Jackson, who is the most successful coach in the NBA history but we felt Woody was our guy and he showed it during the season and in our discussions after the season.”