Any sports fan can appreciate the all-American story of Jeremy Lin, but when the "Linsanity" impacts people's financial decisions, the world really needs to calm down.
Shares of Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the Knicks and therefore employs Lin, rose to a record high amid excitement over the 23-year-old point guard's thrilling five-game run, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
Sporting goods stores in the New York region have been flying through boxes of Lin merchandise, but that's to be expected. Fans will be fans.
The stock increase, by contrast, wasn't spurred by any new, encouraging news about MSG. The Knicks' TV network remains unavailable to roughly two million Time Warner Cable subscribers, as TWC continues to resist MSG's demand for a 53 percent increase per subscriber. Plus, the Knicks still have about $37 million in salary wrapped up in Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, who have combined to play one game since the madness erupted.
A few observers have even proposed that the Lin mania could motivate TWC and MSG to come to an agreement.
David Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, didn't seem to think so in an interview with Businessweek.
"It's a rounding error compared to not having the ad revenue or affiliate fees," Joyce said of the impact increased merchandise sales would have on the TV dispute. "But it does help to some degree."
As with most things in the stock market, rationality has taken a backseat. Speculation and emotion have taken hold in the Linsanity.
