In New York, Lin Craze Is Out of Fashion

In the back northeast corner of the basement level of a sporting goods store in Times Square, a rack of Jeremy Lin jerseys hung unsold and unnoticed on Monday. They were Houston Rockets red.

“Lin No. 17” Knicks merchandise, which was must-have gear nine months ago, has long since been sold off after Lin signed with Houston in July.

There were a few such relics sprinkled in the crowd at Madison Square Garden on Monday, for Lin’s return to face his former team for the first time in New York. The fans gave him a loud ovation during the starting lineup introduction.

Then they watched as Lin raced up and down the court with familiar effect, scoring 22 points in the Rockets’ comfortable 109-96 victory.

“It was a lot of fun playing on that court again,” Lin said.

There was a revenge aspect for Lin. In the off-season, he signed a $25 million deal with Houston, and the Knicks declined to match it. His popularity in New York did not quite do enough to persuade Knicks executives to keep him in town.

He has performed solidly as the Rockets’ starting point guard, averaging 11.3 points and 6 assists a game. On Monday, he surpassed that, showing the Knicks a bit of what they were missing.

Along with his 22 points, he tallied 8 assists and 4 rebounds. He was cheered when he left the game, with two and a half minutes left and the Rockets ahead by 16.

Afterward, when asked if he felt as if it was last February all over again for him, he smiled and said no.

“I’m in a very different place now,” Lin said. “I’ve moved on, they’ve moved on. We have good memories.”

Lin said that the cheers from the crowd were stronger than he expected.

“I am a bit conflicted,” said Peter Chow, who was wearing a Lin T-shirt. “I’ll root for him when he scores, but in the end I want the Knicks to win.”

Chow, from Queens, bought the shirt last season, during the height of Linsanity, when the city pulsed and ticket prices to see him soared.

That rush began on Feb. 4, when Lin scored 25 points in 36 minutes off the bench against the Nets. Filling a vacancy at the point — where Iman Shumpert, Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas had failed — Lin had 28 points against the Utah Jazz, 23 points and 10 assists against the Washington Wizards, and 38 points in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 10 that capped a week almost incomparable in N.B.A. annals.

He was producing on the court — for the month of February, Lin averaged 20.9 points, 8.4 assists, and 2.1 steals — but the phenomenon was built off it.

Fans loved his story — undrafted out of Harvard and living on his brother’s couch — and his background struck a chord among Asian-Americans. Within weeks, he was praised by President Obama, tailed by paparazzi and sized for shoes by Nike. His trading card sold for $21,000 on eBay.

Lin even had the catchphrase Linsanity trademarked.

“It was the time of my life,” Lin said before Monday’s game. “To do it in the fashion that we did was fun. It’s something I’ll remember forever.”

The hoopla lasted less than two months. Lin’s influence dwindled after Coach Mike Woodson replaced Mike D’Antoni, and after battling a meniscus injury in his knee, Lin played his last game with the Knicks on March 24 and eventually had surgery.

Lin’s popularity remains strong worldwide. He is currently sixth over all in the Western Conference All-Star balloting, with nearly 300,000 votes. But in New York, even on Monday, it was clear that Linsanity is over. After his departure, Modell’s Sporting Goods sold off about 40,000 Lin jerseys and T-shirts at discounted prices in a matter of weeks.

“We gave it away,” said Mitch Modell, the chain’s chief executive officer. Jerseys were marked down as low as $10; some T-shirts sold for $1.

“When somebody like that is that hot, and it dies, it dies really quickly,” Modell added. “You’ve just got to sell and convert it to cash. It’s not worth the space it takes up.”