Lin: I wanted to stay

If many Knicks fans had their way, Jeremy Lin would still be with the team.

Lin feels the same.

"Honestly, I preferred New York," Lin told Sports Illustrated about where he wanted to sign. "But my main goal in free agency was to go to a team that had plans for me and wanted me."

He thought that team was the Knicks. But an offer never materialized before free agency started, and Houston was the only team that gave Lin an offer sheet after it began.

Contrary to reports, Lin told SI.com that he never told the Knicks about Houston's initial four-year, $28.8-million offer that coach Mike Woodson said the team would match.

The Rockets' revised offer was for three years and $25.1 million with a "poison pill" third year of $14.8 million -- one the Knicks ultimately refused to match.

The only contact Lin had with Knicks brass during that time was when general manager Glen Grunwald called to tell him goodbye. And it lasted 30 seconds.

"We wanted to keep you, but it couldn't work out," Grunwald said, according to Lin. "Tell your family I say hello, and good luck the rest of the way." (AMNY)The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, Madison Square Garden and Cablevision. Cablevision is the parent company of amNewYork.