Well, never mind on Jeremy Lin

A few days ago it was excitedly reported that the Golden State Warriors were signing Jeremy Lin, a Bay Area native who began his NBA career with the Dubs about a decade ago.

There was a caveat: Lin still needed to receive his letter of clearance from the Chinese Basketball Association, where he was still under contract.

That caveat ended up playing a big role in the situation, and Lin no longer appears destined for the Warriors. In order for the Warriors to sign Lin to the Exhibit 10 contract that they had agreed on, they would have to sign him to a training camp deal and waive him. But the Warriors were unable to get the letter of clearance before the deadline to do so.

In short, the Warriors were going to sign Lin and then immediately waive him which, given the nature of the Exhibit 10 contract, would give them his G League rights. In order to do that now, they would have to waive another player just to make room for Lin — who would then be waived. In other words, it’s not gonna happen.

So instead, they did the same thing with undrafted rookie Elijah Pemberton.

That made for a funny combination of tweets from the Warriors PR team, which announced the signing and then the waiving within minutes of each other, with essentially the same release.

Pemberton, a 6’5” guard with a nice three-point shot, will now get to spend the season with the Santa Cruz Warriors. A reunion with Lin is not impossible, but it’s clear the team wants their emergency depth options to be players who are in the system, so it’s very unlikely.

Update: The Warriors are reportedly still hoping to get Lin in their G League system.