Randall Lane May Be the Dumbest Forbes Writer Ever

My friend, David Lee, who lives in Hong Kong but was a long-time NYC resident has a great rant below...

Randall Lane May Be the Dumbest Forbes Writer Ever

Sorry for the harsh headline, but I’m having trouble coming up with any other conclusion.

It is obvious that Mr. Lane has never been involved in a multi-million dollar contract negotiations. So Mr. Lane, given your obvious superior intellect, please explain to us plebeian readers how exactly you would have managed this situation.

The Houston Rockets are courting you aggressively. They negotiate an offer for 4 years and send out the news trial balloon. The Knicks take the bait and publicly declare that they will match (why they did this only Dolan and Woodson know). Then the Rockets offer something else. Something more harmful to the Knicks, yes absolutely.

Now, the Knicks during this whole time contact Mr. Lin exactly, ZERO, times. Feeling the love? Me, neither. So what is Mr. Lin supposed to do. Contact Mr. Dolan? “Hey, James I’ve got this offer on the table. It’s pretty harmful to the Knicks. What should I do? Can we come up with something that is mutually beneficial?” Maybe, this could have happened if there was ANY communication channel established, but there was none apparently. Furthermore, do you understand the concept of neogtiating in “good faith”. You just don’t have any moral standing to go back and “shop the offer”. Any 1st year on Wall Street could have told you this Mr. Lane.

You just don’t do it for selfish reasons. If you shop the offer, and Mr. Dolan leaks that you’ve done this, the Rockets would pull their offer faster than Melo can put up a Brick. And then what are you left with Mr. Genius Lane, notta. You’re left with your proverbial “d**k” in your hands that’s what. So get a clue about how these negotiations work. Lin didn’t have a choice. At that point it was take it or leave it.

Now one thing I do find fault with Mr. Lin is how he is characterizing his feelings about NY. What’s been partially said and partially unsaid but is very clear is that Mr. Lin wanted to come back for the fans, for the roar of the Garden and the feeling that swept the city for those sweet 10 games (prior to Amare and Melo’s returns).

Unfortunately, he did not want to come back and “lead” a team with the Hall of Fame Ballstopper, the average defensive-minded coach and a lunatic owner. Who would? NY would have been a nightmare for him to navigate and he knows it, so although he would have taken a PR hit, would have been more genuine to say “I’m running as fast as I can from those 3 nutters!”.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t about money, Mr. Lane. It’s about being happy and playing to your potential. If you had an offer to write somewhere else, where you could more freely write your fiction at a lower paygrade and in a less exciting city, maybe that would appeal to you.

After you’ve had some academic training in negotiations and a dose of humility about calling others “dumb”. Who’s dumb now?