Jeremy Lin Signed With The Rockets Over Taxes?

Linsanity died in New York the minute the Houston Rockets reclaimed him with a big, fat, three-year, $25-million contract.

Though NBA fans can debate for days whether point guard Jeremy Lin committed a foul against NY, a Forbes article pitted his move to Texas on taxes.

New York couldn't match the extra $5-million in his third year because retaining Lin would mean shelling out a $20M luxury tax. According to the luxury fee rules set for the 2013-14, a 175% minimum tax rate is imposed for teams exceeding the tax threshold designed to control team spending.

Despite rumors of bouncing back and forth between offers, the Harvard grad said he only had one. "I didn't go back to them and ask for more money," Lin said in a recent interview with the San Jose Mercury news. "It wasn't like they gave me the choice to sign one of the two and I chose the one that would hurt the Knicks. I had one contract offer. That was it."

To put in laymen's terms, the luxury tax is a high-spending team payment that is calculated by computing 61% of Basketball Related Income, subtracting projected player benefits and adjusting the prior season's to the actual projections.The tax level for 2011-12 season was $70.307M, which had the Lakers, Celtics, Heat, Mavericks, Spurs and Hawks cashing out.

As for Lin, he doesn't feel he'll pay for leaving New York since naysayers will follow him throughout his career. "I will always, always have doubters," Lin told the San Jose Mercury News. "But I really want to reach my potential to bring glory to God. That is more motivation than haters and doubters. I want to work just as hard, give just as much, whether or not I have haters."