By Did anyone see the New York Knicks versus Los Angeles Lakers game last night? Jeremy Lin an Asian-American basketball player has come out of nowhere to become the story of the NBA season especially after he just lit up Kobe Bryant’s Lakers last night:
Somehow, the most improbable story in NBA history found himself in the most improbable place on Friday night: The ball in his hands, Madison Square Garden on its feet, and the fourth quarter genius of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant determined to obliterate this burgeoning mythology. Out of Bryant, had come a barrage: twisted, contorted fades, a self-pass off the backboard, the A-list arsenal out of the world’s most gifted scorer.
Somehow, Jeremy Lin never flinched. Somehow, Jeremy Lin never let himself become a spectator, never stopped to wonder what in the world he was doing out here. The ball was so safe, so snug, in his hands. There was such an easy effortlessness to the downright diabolical manner with which he dismantled the Lakers and Bryant. Sheer hysteria had thundered down on the Garden floor, a phenomenon called Linsanity, and the most polished, most poised, presence happened to be Lin.
This kid out of nowhere – out of Harvard University, out of the Reno Bighorns and Erie Bayhawks – had done it again, done it with a devastating 38 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals in the Knicks’ 92-85 victory over the Lakers. [Yahoo Sports]
What is most amazing about Lin is that he is winning these games without the Knicks two star players, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire who are both out. Watching this guy play last night it is unbelievable that no one recognized his talent until now. Lin led his Palo Alto High School team to the California state title in 2006 and couldn’t get a Division 1 college in California to offer him a scholarship so he went off and starred at Harvard instead. He was an undrafted free agent into the NBA and last week was given a chance to play for the Knicks because of injuries and basically desperation due to the poor season they were having. Now that Lin has finally gotten his chance in the NBA he is making the most of it after being overlooked for so long. I have to agree with Phil Taylor from Sports Illustrated that being an Asian-American had to be a big reason why this guy was overlooked for so long.
Watching him play last night and he immediately reminded me of how Steve Nash plays; a guy with a constant motor driving into the paint looking for open players and making open and pull up jump shots when its there. Coaches must have saw Lin’s talent during practice but just didn’t believe he could get it done during a game because of who he is. It will be interesting to see if NBA teams after Lin’s success will take a closer look at Asian players now. It took a while for European and then South American players to catch on in the NBA due to a perceived lack of athleticism and now they are all over the league. Lin is now inspiring many people to believe that it is possible for an ethnic Asian to succeed in the NBA as well.
8:48 am on February 11th, 2012 1
He came off the bench and had a great week. Some of that might be due to the fact he was overlooked and underestimated. Now that the opposing teams will take him seriously and prepare to play against him differently we’ll see where he goes to from there.
I read where he’s suddenly attracted a lot of Asian international media requests to broadcast Knicks games. Even with their star players like Anthony they are not expected to be good enough to make the playoffs this year. I think it’s premature and unfair to dump too many expectations on that kid.
9:04 am on February 11th, 2012 2
Sorry but this is more about political correctness than anything. The stereotype is that only blacks can play Basketball and it is applied from when kids are beginning to play Basketball and that push’s good other than black players to the sidelines which is what occurred with Jeremy. He plays old school Basketball which goes beyond how high you can jump or how fast you can run. It is the purest form of Basketball.
9:10 am on February 11th, 2012 3
To be frank, Basketball has become very boring with all the dunks and three point shots (NBA) as opposed to international play. Use to be a thinking game on top of athletic ability. Now with few exceptions its just a dunk and will eventually evolve into something else.
11:57 am on February 11th, 2012 4
@1 – The Lakers and especially Kobe Bryant were looking forward to bring the phenom back down to Earth and they ended up getting torched. I think his biggest challenge is going to be fatigue over a long season and this season is actually a shortened one due to the strike. Can he keep up his high energy style of play over an 82 game season and playoffs in the future? We will see.
Also with the ball hog Carmelo Anthony coming back next week from injury this to could hurt his play. However, if Carmelo returns to his ball hogging ways that leads to losses again, I think the fans will boo him out of the Garden. I do think Lin and Stoudemire when he returns on Monday will play well together though considering how well he used to play together with Steve Nash when he was with the Suns.
3:35 pm on February 11th, 2012 5
It would be unusual for fans to complain that other players were hogging the ball from him. The point guard position is very similar to that of a quarterback in football. Lin’s primary role is to look for opportunities and create situations for other players on his team to score. As the primary ball control position, ideally, most of the set plays should start from there.
4:04 pm on February 11th, 2012 6
Somehow, NBA has no problem drafting foreign import Asian players from China and South Korea. While home grown Asian American players are not looked at it as same way. Jeremy Lin attend the Palo Alto high school and Stanford did not even try to recruit him even though all they have to do is go over to other side of town to watch his HS games. Thank God he was smart enough to enter Harvard on his own academic performance and walked on to the Harvard team.
4:33 pm on February 11th, 2012 7
NY loves their basketball. We’ve been waiting for a team we could root for. Lin is bringing back the excitement that’s been missing for years. It’s still early but with each game and with teams already gameplanning against him now, we’ll see how far he can take this but he definitely does look like a player. NY is looking for a reason to cheer. And the city is really adopting him as their favorite son.
4:35 pm on February 11th, 2012 8
And the thing is, it’s not the Asians leading the cheers. Linsanity is real and it is spreading. Don’t know how long it’ll last but for now, he’s all the city’s talking about, even taking headlines away from the Giants who just won the Super Bowl.
6:46 pm on February 11th, 2012 9
He wasn’t “overlooked,”
see comment # 22,
http://rokdrop.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-open-thread-february-5-2012/#comments
4:08 am on February 12th, 2012 10
“While home grown Asian American players are not looked at it as same way.”
It’s all about selling rights to their games and their merchandise. As to why they ignore the Asian-American players…I guess a tatted thug with corn-rows is more interesting to the rich white guys who can afford the tickets.
7:22 am on February 12th, 2012 11
@5 – You haven’t watch Carmelo Anthony play much I take it? I watched him play for years for the Nuggets and I was glad to see him go. He kills the flow of the offense because once he touches the ball he stands there and then either tries a isolation dribble and shoot or a fade away jump shot over the defender. He also doesn’t have the shooting percentage to justify the amount of shots he takes. The Knicks are playing much more fluent offense now without him. When he comes back he needs to start moving away from the ball, cutting to the basket, and passing the ball if he does not have an open shot. For a guy his size he needs to post up more instead of taking jump shots as well. I think Anthony could actually improve his shooting percentage and still be a 20+ a game scorer if he plays within the flow of the offense instead of doing the isolation stuff.
With the way fans are behind Lin if they start losing again after Anthony comes back I think he will be highly criticized by the fans and especially the New York media.
By the way, the Knicks won again last night which makes it 5 wins in a row now for Lin since he started getting significant playing time. If they keep winning like this the Knicks may get back into the playoff race.
5:57 pm on February 13th, 2012 12
He wasn’t overlooked he just wasn’t that good at the time he was coming out of high school. He obviously benefited from fours years in college a la Derek Fisher, Shane Battier, Deron Williams along with many other players that were not highly recruited out of high school. The notion that he was overlooked because he is Asian-American is non-sense. If he was black with the skill set he has I would assure you that he wouldn’t have gotten a second look let alone a third look.
9:01 pm on February 16th, 2012 13
@MajAmerica. : He was voted California Player of the Year in 2006 and you’re telling me, “he just wasn’t that good”? and playing in the freakin Ivy’s made him a better player?
5:17 am on March 15th, 2012 14
It looks like I was right about Carmelo Anthony. Since he came back the Knicks are 2-8 and their coach resigned:
http://news.yahoo.com/coach-dantoni-resigns-knicks-skid-221849814–spt.html