Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: The Rockets’ offer includes a third-year balloon payment of $14.98 million. Under the N.B.A.’s new luxury-tax system, which punishes teams that wildly exceed a determined threshold, that salary could cost the Knicks an additional $35 million to $45 million in tax payments. 
  
 Although the Knicks were carefree with their payroll over the last decade, even Madison Square Garden has a limit. This contract might be it. 
  
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 A person with knowledge of the Knicks’ deliberations said it was “more likely than not” that the team would decline to match the offer. The same person cautioned, however, that “it’s not definitive.” 
  
 Lin played brilliantly for most of February. He electrified the Garden and saved the Knicks’ season. He is a global marketing machine. But $60 million is an extraordinary amount, even in N.B.A. terms, to spend for a player who has started only 25 games. 
  
 Knicks officials have been typically silent, and they are under no obligation to tell anyone anything until Tuesday night — the deadline for matching Houston’s offer. It is unlikely there will be any clarity until then. (It is a well-established tradition for N.B.A. teams to wait until the last minute in these matters.) 
  
 The Knicks’ intentions appeared to be telegraphed Saturday night, when they unofficially reached a deal to acquire Raymond Felton, a veteran point guard, from Portland. Although Felton could simply be an insurance policy — a hedge against Jason Kidd’s age (39) and Lin’s inexperience — the move was widely interpreted as the first step in cutting ties with Lin. 
  
 Lin himself told associates that he believed Felton was acquired to replace him. Yet even Lin is not sure what the Knicks will do, those associates said. He has been told nothing directly by team officials. And no one in the Knicks’ hierarchy is talking, leaving fans to speculate and fret. 
  
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 “I’m going for a walk. Perhaps off a cliff. I don’t know, we’ll see,” Jim Cavan, a Knicks fan and blogger, wrote on his Twitter account Sunday morning. 
  
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 Comments like those were common as distraught fans grappled with the news. An online petition calling for the Knicks to keep Lin was already circulating. It had more than 2,000 signees by midnight Sunday. 
  
 The decision was never supposed to be this complicated or stressful. Lin is a restricted free agent, which allows the Knicks to match any offer. He has early Bird rights, which give the Knicks greater flexibility to pay him without regard to the salary cap. 
  
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 And because of an obscure cap provision, no rival was allowed to offer Lin more than a $5 million starting salary. That provision, commonly known as the Gilbert Arenas rule, was created to ensure that teams could re-sign a breakout star like Lin without fear of being outbid by a team with cap room. 
  
 The well-intentioned rule is having unexpected consequences. The Rockets cannot outbid the Knicks, but because they are under the cap, they are permitted to give Lin a balloon payment — a so-called poison pill — in the third year of his deal. Houston originally set that figure at $9.3 million and then increased it to $14.98 million, close to the maximum allowed. 
  
 For cap purposes, Lin’s three-year salary would count as an average for Houston, or $8.4 million a year. But the Knicks would be charged the full amount in 2014-15, costing them $50 million to $60 million in a combination of salary and luxury taxes, rival executives said. 
  
 That said, Lin would arguably be undervalued in the first two years — at $5 million and $5.4 million — and the Knicks would have time to either rework their payroll or, as a last resort, to trade Lin by the third year, when his expiring contract would become a commodity. Those are considerations the Knicks are still weighing. 
  
 Lin’s salary would be the Knicks’ third highest in 2014-15, behind those of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. He would make slightly more than Tyson Chandler, the reigning defensive player of the year. 
  
 Even for N.B.A. players, who are used to seeing outlandish contracts fly every July, the offer to Lin appeared staggering. Anthony, speaking to reporters covering the United States Olympic team, said as much Sunday. 
  
 “It’s not up to me,” he said. “It’s up to the organization to say that they want to match that ridiculous contract.” 
  
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 The salary may indeed be ridiculous. But to a legion of Knicks fans, in New York and well beyond, the idea of letting Lin leave is pure Linsanity, and not the good kind. ||||| Johnny Nunez/WireImage 
  
 A man who answered the intercom at Kidd’s home said, “Um, no,” when asked to comment on the arrest. 
  
  
  
 Lights flickered in nearby homes when Kidd demolished the pole, and neighbors lost cable and Internet service for about 12 hours. 
  
  
  
 “He did a lot of damage,” said a Cablevision worker dispatched to the neighborhood. 
  
  
  
 Ricky Soares, 55, who lives nearby said he was throwing a party when the accident happened. 
  
  
  
 “That’s when the lights went out for a second and then came back on ... the TV was out. The Cablevision was out,” Soares said. 
  
  
  
 “It was a nuisance,” added neighbor Bob Lax, 76. “Cable, telephone and everything else went out. I went to use to the phone; it was dead.” 
  
  
  
 Donna Engelson, a grandmother, scolded Kidd, a father of six, for being irresponsible. 
  
  
  
 “Just because he’s Jason Kidd doesn’t mean he can drive drunk and cause a lot of property damage that we may have to pay for,” Engelson said. “He inconvenienced a lot of people.” 
  
  
  
 It’s not the first time Kidd has been on the wrong side of the law. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to a domestic violence charge stemming from an incident involving his ex-wife, Joumana. 
  
  
  
 He led the New Jersey Nets to NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003 before winning a title with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. 
  
  
  
 As a member of the Knicks, Kidd was expected to mentor fellow point guard Jeremy Lin, who now appears to be headed to the Houston Rockets after signing a $25 million offer sheet that the Knicks appear unlikely to match. 
  
 Lin burst on the scene last season, captivating Madison Square Garden and sparking a phenomenon coined "Linsanity" as the Knicks enjoyed a long winning streak in the absence of All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony. He started 25 games before hurting his knee, which caused him to miss the playoffs. 
  
  
  
 The Knicks had no immediate comment on Kidd’s arrest. 
  
  
  
 But Knicks fans said the incident should spur the team’s brass to rethink resigning Lin, a devout Christian, before it’s too late. 
  
  
  
 “Letting Lin get away is a bad idea,” said Cristy Cobb, 23, of Brooklyn. 
  
 MELO: UP TO KNICKS IF THEY WANT TO MATCH 'RIDICULOUS' LIN CONTRACT 
  
  
  
 Like many Knicks fans, Rashuan Kelly, 25, was prepared to give Kidd a pass for his off-court shenanigans. 
  
  
  
 “Hopefully he's not injured or anything,” Kelly said. “As a basketball player, he’s one of the best to play the game.” 
  
  
  
 Some on Twitter were quick to bash Kidd. 
  
  
  
 FAN STARTS ON-LIN PETITION TO KEEP JEREMY IN NEW YORK 
  
  
  
 “So Jason Kidd got drunk and hit a telephone pole and now he has a DWI charge?” posted Ms. B to the C. “The ink hasn’t even dried on your contract yet.” 
  
  
  
 bpaddock@nydailynews.com 
  
  
  
 - with Edgar Sandoval and Stefan Bondy 
  
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A:
Just months after setting New York on fire with his dynamic play—not to mention his inspiring pun potential—Jeremy Lin could be leaving the Knicks, reports the New York Times. The Houston Rockets have offered Lin a hefty $25 million, three-year contract that could force the Knicks to let go of the electric point guard. The big problem is the third year of the deal, during which is Houston set to pay Lin $14.8 million; for cap purposes, Houston's offer works out to $8.4 million a year. But if the Knicks match it the team would get charged the full amount in the third year and therefore get slammed by the NBA's new luxury tax, resulting in a salary and tax payout as big as $60 million. Lin is the most popular Knick in a decade and fans are freaking out. The team has until 11:59pm tomorrow to make up its mind; but as the team recently signed aging point guard Jason Kidd and traded for Raymond Felton, another point guard, on Saturday, it certainly looks like it doesn't intend to sign Lin. Even Knicks star Carmelo Anthony didn't exactly offer much support for Lin. "It’s not up to me," said Anthony. "It’s up to the organization to say that they want to match that ridiculous contract." Kidd, who signed a three-year, $9.5 million deal with the Knicks on Thursday, was arrested for drunk driving early Sunday after crashing his SUV into a pole, reports the New York Daily News. He suffered minor injuries in the crash.