Happy Va”LIN”tines Day!!!
2/14/2012... On this day in sports, the cultural phenomenon known as Jermey Lin leads the surging New York Knicks to a victory scoring 27 points and dishing out 11 assists. The last 3 points he scored came with 0.5 seconds left in the game and was a walk-off, game-wining 3 pointer! Is this the greatest story in sports this year? The answer to that question is: NO QUESTION!
By this point, everyone, whether sports fanatic or not, is at least somewhat familiar with the "Jeremy Lin story." He is an undrafted Asian-American, Harvard grad who came out of the NBA D-league and was sleeping on his friend's couch. After the NY Knicks' two biggest stars, Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, spent time away from the team, for a death in the family and injury respectively, this kid Lin comes in like a storm to lead his team to 6 straight victories. The Harvard grad didn't just do it by supplementing his teammates, but instead Jeremy Lin put the team on his back and carried them while breaking NBA records, making others around him better and seemingly lifting the spirits of an entire city at the same time. NYC simply deems this event horizon as: Linsanity.
There are so many compelling story lines to this story that I could write a whole book on it (which someone will eventually undoubtedly do). The event is so extraordinary, people aren't even afraid to address the glaring elephant in the room, Lin's Asian-American decent. With comments such as Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s a few days ago, the public is not shying away from this discussion. Yes, Lin, who is Taiwanese, seems to be even more of an anomaly because of his race, dominating like he is in a predominately African-American dominated league. However, this fact can't possibly outshine the 136 points in his first 5 starts (more than any other player in the history of the NBA) and the new energy he has given the once struggling Knicks. When it comes to sports, no matter what the race, fans want to see results and Lin has yet to disappoint.
People seem to want to constantly compare Lin to Tim Tebow (whom Lin admitted to being a fan of) because of the impact he's had both with his team as well as sports culture as a whole. However, Tebow was a blue-chip recruit out of high school, a National Player of the Year at University of Florida as well as a National Champion. Jeremy Lin seemingly came out of nowhere. Anybody who said they could have seen this coming is flat-out lying to you. But that seems to be the "feel good" part to this whole story. Lin gives us all the hope that we can truly conquer whatever it is we want to if we just believe. How can this "unknown" step onto the floor of a packed Madison Square Garden arena, in his fisrt week as a starter, with ice-cold veins and put up 36 pts to outshine Kobe Bryant? How can Jeremy be so confident that he will wave off his Knicks teammates with 4 seconds left in the game to bury a walk-off 3 pointer in Toronto? How does he make it look easy as if he's been doing this for years?
We are totally buying into Linsanity here at GOAG. It is unbelively fun to wacth this "Linderella" story unfold, especially in NYC, the mecca of basketball, cultural melting-pot and media capital of the world. I hope this train never slows down. Keep rockin' out Mr. Lin!
P.S.- Can any of you think of any other clever "Lin" lines? They seem to be endless!
-EJ
