When not many people believed in Jeremy Lin, there was Roger Montgomery.
The sports agent, whose only other NBA client is Mo Evans, who plays for the Washington Wizards, traveled to Harvard during Lin's senior year on the belief that one day Lin would be an every-day NBA player.
Montgomery said that scoring Lin as a client wasn't by default.
"The competition was steep," Montgomery said.
But Lin's and Montgomery's dreams came to a halt when Lin wasn't drafted. Sure, he got a garbage playing time with the Golden State Warriors, but things didn't materialize and the Rockets picked him up and released him, which Rockets general manager Daryl Morey quickly acknowledged was a mistake.
"He has always had this skill," Montgomery told CNBC. "It's just that no one really wanted to give him a chance to show what he could do."
Then came his opportunity with the Knicks, when the Taiwanese-American scored more points in his first four starts than any player since the ABA-NBA merger.
But Montgomery says it's not as if Lin has become a better player. The agent says he has always been this solid.
"It's hard for a guy to do well when nobody allows him to show what he can do," Montgomery said.
It appears like Lin, who is making $9,620 a game, might have the last laugh. And Montgomery is working harder than ever. Lin is in the second year of a three-year deal with Nike, which likely pays him next to nothing in actual compensation, but every other endorsement category is open.
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