Amar'e Stoudemire Comments on Why Jeremy Lin Left Knicks

Point guard Jeremy Lin burst onto the NBA scene during the 2011-12 season with the New York Knicks, going from an unknown player to averaging 14.6 points and 6.2 assists per game.

He seemingly made daily appearances on the SportsCenter highlight reel and quickly became a household name. His game and the buzz it created even earned a nickname: Linsanity.

However, Lin left after just 35 games with the Knicks to sign a three-year, $25 million deal with the Houston Rockets, a team that had released him just seven months earlier.

Lin's former Knicks teammate, Amar'e Stoudemire, who now plays for the Miami Heat, commented on the situation prior to his return to Madison Square Garden on Sunday, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com:

"

If he stayed it would've been cool. But everyone wasn't a fan of him being the new star. So he didn't stay long. But Jeremy was a great, great guy. Great teammate. He put the work in and we're proud of him to have his moment. A lot of times you gotta enjoy someone's success. And that wasn't the case for us during that stretch.

"

Lin now plays for the Charlotte Hornets and is averaging 11.9 points and 3.2 assists per game. Although he has had some success, which has also included stints with the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers, Lin has been unable to sustain the kind of stardom he found in New York.

Carmelo Anthony was accused of being jealous of Lin during his peak success in New York, and he was asked about it Sunday, per Youngmisuk, "S--t, if that was the case, then I’d be upset with KP [Kristaps Porzingis]. ... I doubt if he's talking about me.”

Lin has never been an All-Star and is closer to an afterthought this year. Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press had a take on the situation:

Reynolds was referring to a 2012 game in which LeBron James and the Heat embarrassed a 23-year-old Lin en route to a 102-88 victory. “I can’t remember another game where it was hard to just take dribbles,” Lin said after the game, per Bleacher Report's Howard Beck, who was then working for the New York Times.

Lin isn't the household name he once was, and it's not surprising some players were jealous of an undrafted second-year player becoming one of the most popular sports figures in the media capital of the world.

However, Lin plays with a chip on his shoulder around which he built his game after going mostly unnoticed following his days with the Harvard Crimson. And Stoudemire's revelation might just light a fire under him.