‘Lin is one of my text buddies,’ says Atkinson

Not long after rupturing his right patellar tendon, Jeremy Lin headed to Vancouver to start rehabbing, spending most of his time in a suburb of the Canadian city ... until now.

Lin is back in Brooklyn for the next several days and will sit in on the Nets bench for three home games in five days: Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers; Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks; and Tuesday against the Houston Rockets, the first and last of whom Lin played for once upon a time.

Kenny Atkinson briefly discussed Lin’s communication with the Nets while he’s been away and rehabbing. Atkinson assures everyone that it’s all good.

“I think it was a group decision,” Atkinson said of Lin being away from the team (physically). “We collaborated obviously with the people he’s working with now. And we constantly have people communicating with him, including me, we constantly have people go back and forth with him, visiting with him, I’d hope he would say ‘man, I feel pretty loved by the Nets.”

Moreover, Atkinson also said the he and Lin talk on basically a daily basis, even referring to him as one of his “text buddies,” and added that the 6’3” guard sends Atkinson his own post-game recaps, to some degree.

“He’s one of my text buddies – he sent me a pick-and-roll defense, it was like a Harvard NBA presentation on pick-and-roll defense and how to become a better pick-and-roll defender, and it’s like ‘okay, coach Lin,’” Atkinson said, humorously.

“He’s so involved. He’s not just sitting there doing his own thing, he’s always hitting me with stuff after the game; ‘you could’ve done this, you could’ve done that,’ it’s great. And I know our medical team is all over him. He’s in a really good place, he’s happy with how he’s progressing.”