hundreds of thousands of blacks and latinos face in the boardroom everyday...

>http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/8176475/jeremy-lin-departure-surprise-mike-dantoni
>
>
>MANCHESTER, England -- Mike D'Antoni was there for the start
>of Linsanity. He never envisioned it would end so quickly.
>
>But Jeremy Lin became a member of the Houston Rockets Tuesday
>night when the Knicks refused to match a three-year deal worth
>about $25 million, ending a brief but amazing run as New
>York's point guard.
>
>The news of Lin leaving the Knicks is not something D'Antoni
>thought would happen.
>
>"No. Not when the kicker was they can match," the former
>Knicks coach said Wednesday before the U.S. men's Olympic
>team's practice. "Even when I was there, well, at least we got
>him, we don't have to worry about him blowing up and us not
>being able to afford it."
>
>But the Knicks ultimately decided they couldn't or wouldn't.
>
>The Knicks repeatedly had said they planned to keep the
>restricted free agent, and Olympians Carmelo Anthony and Tyson
>Chandler both believed they would.
>
>"I know the Knicks organization wanted him back, I know his
>teammates wanted him back, I felt like Jeremy wanted to come
>back, but can't pass up what Houston threw out there,"
>Chandler said.
>
>D'Antoni, who gave Lin a chance to play in February, resigned
>a month and a half later when the Knicks were struggling. He
>remains a firm believer in the undrafted point guard from
>Harvard.
>
>It's possible Lin may never live up to the Rockets' deal, but
>D'Antoni refuses to rule it out. And he won't accept the idea
>that Lin was only a creation of D'Antoni's high-scoring
>offensive system.
>
>"First of all, I think that's not fair to anybody, I think
>especially not to Jeremy," D'Antoni said. "For 20 games he was
>one of the best in the league and he was dominating from the
>headlines to even on the basketball court. So you can't
>discount that he'll never be able to do it, because not only
>did he do it, he did it at the highest level possible.
>
>"So I'm happy for him, I think it's a great contract for him,
>and Houston could find themselves a very, very, very good
>basketball player. At least he's going to be a good player.
>The guy's got quickness and determination, so he's going to be
>good. Now it depends on what level, nobody knows that, but I
>wouldn't bet against him."
>
>Lin has another believer in Kobe Bryant. Lin scored a
>career-high 38 points in outplaying one of the NBA's biggest
>stars during a nationally televised victory in February
>against the Los Angeles Lakers.
>
>"The plays that he was making, it didn't seem like he had too
>much of a difficulty making them. He seemed like he was pretty
>comfortable in making those plays and he was pretty consistent
>afterwards," Bryant said. "His numbers weren't 30 and 15
>assists or whatever, but they were more than solid numbers. He
>can play, he's a very good player."
>
>How good is impossible to predict, because Lin made just 25
>starts before his season ended with surgery to repair torn
>cartilage in his knee. His numbers already were falling by
>then, a combination of fatigue and a lesser role in the
>offense once Mike Woodson replaced D'Antoni, now an assistant
>coach with the U.S. Olympic team.
>
>"I mean, I don't think nobody really has an idea what his
>ceiling is," Anthony said. "What he was able to do for that
>little stretch that he played before he got hurt, he was at
>the all-time high, from a game standpoint doing what he was
>able to do, averaging 20 something-plus points, almost 10
>assists. I'm ready to see what's next."
>
>He would have seen it in New York, but the third year of Lin's
>contract, worth nearly $15 million, could have cost the Knicks
>more than double that in luxury tax payments.
>
>"Houston threw something in the game that was kind of crazy,"
>Anthony said.