It’s o.k. to go ‘Linsane’
Feb 15, 2012, 10:59 PM | Updated: 11:57 pm
Raise your hand if you had heard of Jeremy Lin a month
ago?
Liar!
Unless you’re a big Ivy League fan or happened to watch
every
second of the Golden State Warriors’ 2010-11 season, you
probably hadn’t.
I had only heard of him because when the New York Knicks
signed Lin on December 27, my Twitter timeline exploded.
Apparently I follow a lot of NBA writers and fans who were
reaching for something interesting two days after
Christmas. I remember thinking to myself “this is a lot
of attention for a guy I’ve never heard of.”
Maybe they knew something after all.
Lin, who played a total of 339 minutes in the NBA before
being inserted in the Knicks’ starting lineup on February
4, has taken the league by storm like no player we’ve ever
seen. More than Bird, Magic, Jordan or LeBron; those
rapid ascents to greatness were expected. Lin has come
out of nowhere, and it couldn’t have come at a better time
for the NBA.
The fear that the lockout would lead to less-than-stellar
play has been realized. Shooting and scoring are down
league-wide. Twenty-four of the NBA’s 30 teams have had
games in which they’ve scored less than 80 points. Eight
teams have had games in which they’ve failed to crack 70.
Other than a couple of jaw-dropping dunks by LeBron James
and Blake Griffin, I defy you to name a league-defining
moment that occurred in the first five weeks of the
season.
That’s why Lin is a godsend. He’s been able to capture
the imagination of fans that have tuned out the NBA for
years. Just the other day, a colleague of mine here at
KTAR stopped me, engaged me in a conversation about Lin,
and admitted “I haven’t cared about the NBA in ten years.”
The Knicks are 5-0 since Lin entered the starting lineup,
and he’s averaged over 27 points and 8 assists in those
five games– only the best 5-game beginning to a player’s
career as a starter in NBA history. But Lin has done more
than resuscitate New York; he’s breathed life into the NBA
again.
There have been the obligatory comparisons to what Tim
Tebow did for the Denver Broncos last season — taking
over a 1-4 team and leading his team to an AFC West title.
But let’s face it, the NFL didn’t need the help. All
Tebow’s story did was add another layer of frosting on an
already delcious cake.
What Lin has done is tantamount to pulling a burnt roast
out of the oven and making it edible.
And let’s not forget, Tebow was close to a household name
when he started his streak of awesomeness in 2011. Lin
was almost completely unknown and had been cut by the
Golden State Warriors (oops).
There’s one question that remains: can Lin keep it up? My
clear answer is, who cares? What we’ve seen is one of the
most heart-warming, inspirational stories since Rocky.
Except this is real, and we’re right in the middle of it.
You couldn’t write this.
If you pitched the “Asian-American from Harvard who
becomes a star for the Knicks” idea to Hollywood studio,
not only would they reject you, they’d have you escorted
off the premises by security.
Even if Lin peters out, we’ve been treated to one of the
most improbable sports stories ever told.
I have a feeling this will all end happily, but I’m not
too concerned about the conclusion.
This ride has been fun enough to make me put that on hold.
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