Finally Hungry Enough!

"So this is what it feels like to be hungry, huh?"

Cinderella represents one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. She finally got the opportunity to roll with the big dawgs and showed up in all of the latest gear, riding in a carriage with 26 inch rims and a sound system that could be heard throughout the kingdom. However, at midnight the joint suddenly turned into a pumpkin as she was trying to get back to the crib. The only thing that remained from that night was her little glass slipper.

The story of Jeremy Lin has been phenomenal and I hope that it continues for him. However, if I was his agent right now I'd buy him a little glass slipper to put in his locker and to carry with him in his bag on road trips so that he understands the sense of urgency that is at hand. He's got to stay focused on the task and not buy into the hype whatsoever. So far he's done that!

According to Forbes, Lin is estimated to be worth $15 million dollars because of the sudden interest in him. However, that money hasn't made its way to him yet. That's why if his agent is worth his weight in his license he'd be out there hustling for every endorsement deal he can find. Lin should only be doing 4 things right now; eating, playing ball, sleeping and shooting commercials!

On days that he's not playing he should still be shooting; not basketballs but photos and commercials. He's in New York for crying out loud. It ain't hard to get in front of people bruh! That's why they call it Madison Ave. When you ride down the street all you here is that Junior Mafia "Get Money" bumpin' from the skyline. Lin's gotta get in on some of that action.

His salary is $762,195, all of which is now guaranteed. Since this season is shortened, Lin is really only making about 80% of that, which is $609,756. His contract was just recently guaranteed by the Knicks on February 10, 2012 (the date set by the collective bargaining agreement as the deadline that teams had to make the decision to cut a player or guarantee his contract). Now that's unbelievable money if he was working on some job in the real world but this is the NBA and that’s peanuts.

Obviously, you can't expect the Knicks to pay him several million dollars right now because they had all of the leverage three weeks ago. He was sleeping on his brother’s couch for crying out loud. If they could have they would have offered him $300K but the Collective Bargaining Agreement wouldn't allow it.

So the plan needs to be for his agent to put on that Wu-Tang Clan "C.R.E.A.M." and ride all day. Don't come back until you've got Jeremy's bread. Then do the same thing again the following day but I want to hear you bumpin' that Puff Daddy & the Family "It's All about the Benjamin’s!" If it starts to skip put on that The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Ma$e & Puff Daddy "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems!" But whatever you gotta do, get Jeremy Lin his paper because he’s allergic to pumpkin pie bruh!

I hear you saying that Lin's jersey was one of the top selling joints of the past couple of weeks so he's getting money for that right? Wrong! In the NBA, the total receipt from jersey sales are lumped into one big pool and then all the players are paid equally from that pool. So for example, Detroit’s Vernon Macklin gets the same amount as LeBron and will give LeBron mad love for putting some additional bread in his pocket when he runs into him. So therefore, Lin's money isn’t going to change just because his jersey is being sold.

Now I know some clown Knicks fan is reading this and saying, "Lin just needs to concentrate on basketball and not worry about the money!" Worrying about the money is what got 90% of the guys in the league their major contracts in the first place bruh. Don't think for one minute kids in the hood want to play in the NBA because of basketball. They wanted to get out of the hood, eat and take care of Big Momma and nem first and foremost and then play basketball. Don’t get it twisted.

The only reason Jeremy Lin was at Harvard in the first place with ALL of that talent was because he wasn't worrying about the money when he went off to college. His parents were probably loaded because they don't give athletic scholarships to play in the Ivy League bruh and it costs a fortune to go there. What does all of that mean? He wasn't as hungry as the guys that he was competing with when he first came into the league. That’s why he was in the D-league bruh! He has an economics degree from Harvard. He wasn't approaching playing basketball with the same intensity as everybody else on the floor. He was going to eat regardless.

Do you think that he woke up one morning a few weeks ago and all of a sudden learned how to play basketball? No, he just woke up hungry and tired of sleeping on his brother’s couch! Now he's able to compete with other hungry cats! Most kids from the suburbs never make it because they aren't as hungry as the guy standing in front of them!

As long as Lin can keeps showing up with his stomach growling bumpin' that Bone Thugs & Harmony "For The Love of Money" everyday and looking at that glass slipper he'll be all right! You better believe that guys like Mello, LeBron and others that grew up poor can remember the social worker by first name bruh. They remember not being able to eat some nights or sleeping on the floor every night for safety reasons because of the gun play in the streets. If you've never experienced that and you show up to compete against guys that have, it's like trying to take raw meat from a lion. It’s nearly impossible to do! Once Lin balls out of control and get's his money. Then he can bump that Jermaine Dupree featuring JayZ "Money Ain't A Thang!" Now money may not ever be the motivator for him but he better find something to keep his stomach growling!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Hit me up on Twitter: @jaygravesreport