Expect prices on Jeremy Lin jerseys to be slashed if guard leaves NY Knicks ... - New York Daily News

Jeremy Lin jerseys, once a hot item, will be priced to move if point guard heads to Houston.

If Jeremy Lin winds up in a Rockets uniform at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, the business of Linsanity in New York City will experience a free-fall akin to a stock trader's worst day on Wall Street.

Think Gordon Gekko trying to unload Blue Star, only worse.

“We've got 40,000 (Lin apparel) units that we're going to wait until Wednesday morning to decide what to do with, but it's going to be a major fire sale,” Mitch Modell, the CEO of the mammoth Modell’s Sporting Goods chain, told the Daily News, anticipating life without the Harvard-educated Lin running the point for the Knicks.

“Put it this way, customers are going to have a field day. They can buy goods from $5 and up, because we're going to price to sell.”

Although he only started 25 games for the Knicks this past season, Lin was an instant marketing and advertising darling. Lin jerseys and T-shirts flew off the shelves and Knick fans packed Madison Square Garden during Lin’s February surge, when he became a starter.

Nike even launched the Zoom Hyperfuse Low basketball shoe, which was built especially for Lin.

“It's not a signature line but a version of the shoe that he's been wearing this season,” Nike told Reuters back during Lin's meteoric rise. The shoe retailed for $130 earlier this year. It’s unclear what financial impact on Nike a Lin defection would have.

But Houston made Lin an offer he couldn't refuse â€" he signed an offer sheet for $25.1 million Friday, and the Knicks seem unlikely to match it. The deal calls for Lin to make $14.9 million in the third year.

With time running out on Linsanity in New York, fans may be cashing in over the next 24 hours. Some were already getting a head start Monday at the Modell's at 150 Broadway in Manhattan.

There was only a limited amount of Lin-related apparel left at the story Monday evening. According one store employee, the Lin stock on the shelves â€" which included only XL and 2XL shirts and jerseys â€" is all that is left. The items have been marked down, with replica Lin jerseys dropped from $59.99 to $40. There were 10 jerseys left Monday at the Broadway Modell's. Mitch Modell said Lin T-shirts would probably go for $5 starting Wednesday if Lin is a Rocket. Those same T-shirts normally sell for $19.99.

“It's a tremendous impact,” Modell said of the prospect of Lin leaving the Big Apple. “I know how much the ratings went up (with Lin playing), but at the end of the day, the Knicks have to do what’s right for them from the financial (standpoint).”

At the Broadway store Monday, one prospective customer brought in his young son in search of marked-down Lin apparel.

“That's what I figured, that some of it would be on sale,” the fan said as he and his son left empty-handed.