According to Howard Beck of the New York Times, the Knicks have ended deliberations and will not match the three-year, $25 million contract offer, allowing Lin to become a member of the Rockets. The deadline to match Lin’s offer-sheet isn’t until 11:59 p.m. EDT, but apparantly the New York brass has made up their minds.

Posting momentarily to nytimes.com: Lin will be a Rocket. Knicks deliberations over.

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeckNYT) July 17, 2012

I have been on record saying I thought the Knicks took the wrong approach with Lin’s pending free agency from the start. Allowing him to set the market for himself

Mar. 20, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin (17) shoots a free throw during the second half against the Toronto Raptors at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 106-87. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

was the wrong move. had they come in with some type of offer from the start, this could have played out differently. Even if Houston still made Lin the offer, the attempt to show him that he wanted could have given the Knicks some leverage.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks it has been for the Knicks and Lin.

All along, everyone thought there was no way the Knicks would allow Lin to walk, especially after winning his Bird rights.

Head coach  Mike Woodson said Lin would definitely be back in a Knicks uniform next season and went as far as naming him the starting point guard.

Then the Rockets made Lin  a deal that reportedly included a $14.8 million salary in the third year.

With the Knicks are so close to the luxury tax line, they couldn’t match such a deal without incurring a financial penalty.

It just shows where the Knicks are right now. It wasn’t that long that long ago when they would have taken on any amount of money if they thought it would improve the team on the court.

Now, they don’t want to invest heavily in a player who has unlimited marketing capabilities after 25 successful games.

Knicks fans will be angry and disappointed at owner James Dolan. When you love a player, you love a player, no matter how many games he’s played.

Yet while the impact will be felt off the court, there’s no guarantee that Lin would progress to the level of player the Knicks need him to become. Nor is there any guarantee he performs at a level that warrants that amount of money.

On the court, the Knicks are in good hands for the short-term with Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd.

How the Knicks came from a team willing to match any offer for Lin to allowing him to walk in such a short time is a mystery.

Is their some resentment towards Lin for turning his back on the one organization that gave him a fair chance? Are the Knicks angry at Lin for not giving it a go in the playoffs when he said he was at 85 percent?

Whatever the reasons, if the report from Beck is indeed true, the Knicks organization has a lot of answering to do.

The Knicks fan base will demand nothing less than knowing why their fan favorite will be in a Houston Rockets uniform in 2013.

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Feb. 20, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin (17) and small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) react during the first half against the New Jersey Nets at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

With the New York media and much of the basketball world up in arms, debating whether or not the Knicks will match Jeremy Lin’s offer sheet from the Houston Rockets, it appears Carmelo Anthony may have doomed Lin’s chances of returning.

Many had already cast their doubts on Lin’s chances of returning as the Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers complete a sign-and-trade to bring Raymond Felton back to New York, but there hadn’t been any official word yet from the Knicks. Knowing how much the organization values Anthony and his opinions, his words today may prove to be telling.

Via Rod Boone on Twitter at the US Olympic basketball practice today:

On the Lin-Knicks saga: “It’s not up to me. It’s up to the organization to say that they want to match that ridiculous contract.”

More: “I’d love to see him back, but I think he has to do what’s best for him right now.”

On Lin returning: “I think a lot of people kind of jumped the gun with that, that he’s going to be back no matter what.”

Of course, it’s easy to incriminate Anthony without knowing the context of his comments. Anthony has publicly supported Lin before, and has stated that he cares about winning. Jeremy Lin, in this writer’s opinion, gives the Knicks a greater chance to do just that.

But Anthony, who has never been great with the media or with his words, didn’t exactly demand the Knicks to match Lin’s contract. This is a player, who despite relatively little success in his time in New York, has been included in personnel decisions, and was given superiority over Mike D’Antoni before the former coach resigned this past season.

Several reporters have insisted that Anthony wasn’t criticizing Lin, and was instead calling the Rockets ridiculous for the contract. However, ‘Melo should have taken the high road and remained neutral, as Tyson Chandler’s comments were, or declined to comment.

There’s still no definitive word on whether the Knicks will match the contract. It’s possible they’ll let him go, as reports have said they were upset that Lin allowed the Rockets to renegotiate the contract into the “poison pill” variety, and that the Knicks are hesitant to pay Lin almost $30 million (taxes included) in the third year of the contract. However, it’s also possible that the Knicks are gauging fans’, players’, and teams’ reactions to not matching Lin. They may very well wait until the 11th hour to match the contract in hopes of messing with the Rockets’ free agency plans (my personal belief).

But if you are Jeremy Lin, or a fan hoping Lin will return to the Knicks, it doesn’t help when the superstar player avoids a vote of confidence for a free agent.