Monday, February 13, 2012

Oh, The Lin-Sanity!

If Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin wanted to disappear right now, hop on the next flight to anywhere and never be heard from again, his sports legacy would still cast a mammoth shadow. Seriously, it can't get much better than this.


Lin is off to the best scoring start (109 points) to a career of any player since the 1976 NBA/ABA merger. Allen Iverson has the old mark of 101. He's fueled five straight wins for the Knicks, the last four as a member of the starting lineup. He's put together five straight performances that not only woke up the fan base, but five straight hair-raising showcases that rattled the basketball world to its foundation, if only because it proved that in this day and age of advanced statistics, where scouts have scorched the earth looking for the next big thing, Lin has turned out to be a genuine find. 
Jeremy Lin


The fact that he was mere hours away from being released by the Knicks (seriously, the coaching staff actually discussed it) before fate intervened and pushed him into the starting lineup, makes the story more Hollywood than Broadway.
How long the magic ride lasts is anyone's guess. Many presumed it would come crashing to an end Friday night with the Los Angeles Lakers in town and Kobe Bryant ready to stomp through the Lin parade. A career-high 38 points and seven assists later, it was clear that Lin is here to stay a little longer. Saturday it continued. Even on a brutal shooting night (1-12 after halftime), he found a way to outshine Timberwolves rookie phenom Ricky Rubio, sinking the game-clinching free throw with 4.6 seconds left.


Now, I realize the haters out there are going to pounce about his 4.6 turnovers per game and terrible 3 point shooting percentage (17%), but if you can't understand Lin's journey as the first Asian American player to ever play in the NBA and as a graduate from Harvard, you're not paying attention as to why his current tear is resonating so much.

2 comments:

  1. Jeremy Lin is the man! As a Knicks fan I used to wake up every morning praying for someone like Lin to come along and energize a team that was underachieving with one of the biggest payrolls in the NBA. I know his assist-to-turnover ratio isn't great but his on-court intangibles and his scoring savvy make him the remarkable player we all see before us. Every time I think he's going to turn back into a pumpkin he does something better than ever before. Go Lin and Go Knicks!!!

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    1. I'm not a big basketball fan but I've been hearing a lot about this Jeremy Lin character recently so I was drawn to reading this post. He sounds like a pretty talented dude. I also don't really like Kobe Bryant so I'm glad he wasn't the one to end Lins streak of success.

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