Jeremy Lin's Contract Details: Here's How Much Money He'll Make Off Linsanity

According to Tuesday's edition of ESPN's show NBA Coast to Coast, Jeremy Lin's contract is set to explode over the next two years.

This year he would have made $762,195 for the full season, but because the season was shortened, he only gets about 80 percent of that, or $609,756, according to Sportrac.com. Last year the Knicks paid the point guard $473,064.

But now that Linsanity has gripped the National Basketball Association and the entire United States, he is slated to pad his contract with a lot more cash.

According to Coast to Coast, Jeremy Lin is slated to up his salary to about $5 million next year. Because he is a two-year restricted free agent, he is most likely going to continue to collect his salary from the Knicks, who will likely add a little more onto the second year of that contract, Coast to Coast reported.

That boost seems fair, as the average NBA point guard pulled down $5,227,434 this year, according to Matthew Kitchen at Forbes, and the Knicks are likely to try to pay him close to that higher figure.

According to WheretoWatch.com, that $5 million salary next year is limited by the fact that he is a player in the first two years of his contract, under a restriction known as the Gilbert Arenas Provision.

If Jeremy Lin's stellar start to his Knicks career doesn't turn out to be a fluke, and the 23-year-old superstar continues to score 20+ points per game and rack up assists and steals en route to lengthy winning streaks, he will likely remain a Knickerbocker for years to come, the show reported. That's because the deep-pocketed Knicks will be able to match pretty much any offer any other team makes, especially as he has been selling out Madison Square Garden more quickly and enthusiastically than any other Knick has been able to do so in the recent past.

But the real money is not going to be coming from Jeremy Lin's contract, the show's commentators predicted, as he's expected to secure some massive endorsements. One commentator predicted he will make as much as $15 million per year in endorsements, which would put him in the category of the NBA's higher-tier earners.

And ABC News said Jeremy Lin is a marketing dream machine who has driven average ticket prices at the Garden up as high as $282 a pop and that the New York Knicks and their marketing department could not be more elated right about now.

But Forbes.com writer Chris Smith argues that he does not deserve more money, though many millions of dollars are likely to be thrown at him:

To suggest that Lin deserves a new contract after just two weeks is almost laughable, Smith wrote. Lin still has much to prove, and he'll have another chance very soon: the Knicks head to Miami to play LeBron James' Heat on Thursday.