Arbitrator approves Bird rights for Knicks’ guard Jeremy Lin

The Lin-sanity may continue in New York next season. Arbitrator Kenneth Dam ruled on Friday that players like New York Knicks’ point guard Jeremy Lin who had been waived and signed by another team would be able to keep their Early Bird rights in order to re-sign with their current teams.

This ruling also affects Lin’s teammate Steve Novak, Chauncey Billups of the Los Angeles Clippers and J.J. Hickson of the Portland Trailblazers. Their teams are now allowed to go over the salary cap to resign them.

This is good news for teams like New York who are already over the cap and would have been in real danger of losing some of their most talented young players. Besides re-signing Lin and Novak, the Knicks will also have to decide whether or not they will re-sign Landry Fields and J.R. Smith.

The ruling will also allow the Knicks to use their mid-level exception to bring in another free agent like point guard Steve Nash who has recently  expressed interest in playing for the Knicks.

The league has said it will appeal the decision much to the displeasure of the players’ association. The players’ association did not want this matter to linger past the start of the free agency period which will occur on July 1^st. Teams will have to make a decision as to how they will fill their roster spots if the decision is reversed. 

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at sportmentalist@yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.

Also check out these stories:

Knicks await arbitration decision determining Jeremy Lin’s Early Bird rights

5 teams that will attempt to sign Jeremy Lin from the Knicks