Lin is Gone. Get Over It.

I guess we should have seen this coming. Everything about Linsanity is ridiculous. Not so much that he himself is ridiculous (he's actually a very normal 23 year old Asian dude) but everything surrounding him sure is. The hype around his arrival as an NBA star in February was crazy so of course the same should apply to his departure. Since the official announcement that James Dolan gave a forlorn thumbs down to America's sweetheart, the Internet has exploded in grief. It's like John Lennon, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa all died at the same time and James Dolan killed them. It's one thing to say "yeah, Lin was a nice player with some upside, he could carve out a nice career some day". But most Knicks fans (and basketball fans in general) are reacting as if Dolan took a shit on their hopes and dreams. I understand Dolan is a spoiled, pompous jerk. He's made a million and one awful moves during his reign of terror as Knicks owner, and maybe letting Lin go is akin to shitting on your head. But, it's over now, let it go. At least this move is defensible. There's an argument that letting Lin go is a prudent move. He very well may end up being a bust, and the chemistry between him, Carmelo and Amare left something to be desired. It's not a popular opinion but there is at least an argument. There's NO argument for trading Latrell Sprewell for Keith Van Horn, giving Jerome James a monster contract after a couple good games, giving Isiah Thomas an extension after being in 8th place for one day, Eddy Curry for non lottery protected picks, and on and on. Except I don't remember anyone saying they were done as Knicks fans after all of those moves. It's Linsanity all over again, except all that excitement and positive feelings has turned into anger and grief. To all those Knicks fans who feel like their lives are ruined now and maybe are feeling the lure of that new arena in Brooklyn. Take a deep breath, calm down and remember that you were a Knicks fan long before Jeremy Lin was ever in uniform, probably long before he had even picked up a basketball, and in some cases, before he was even born. James Dolan's going to continue to make stupid moves, some stupider than this, but that's no reason to stop being a fan. One particularly dumb argument I hear a lot of people making is "they gave so much money to all these other people, why not him?" or a variation of that, "everyone in the NBA is overpaying worthless players". Because overpaying is en vogue doesn't justify overpaying.

If you're a Knicks fan, my point is: these are the Knicks. You can't just jump ship.We can cry all day about how awful a person Dolan is, how we're going to quit and root for another team, blah blah blah. We all know we'll be right there in front of the tv, or at the Garden, or watching those dots on ESPN gamecast while working late, rooting for the Knicks again. No point in whining about it. Lin is gone, he's not coming back. Your dreams have now been shat on.

Deal with it.

RIP Linsanity: A Timeline of Linsanity in New York

Linsanity has been declared dead more times than Saturday Night Live. First, it was Carmelo's return that killed the phenomenon, then it was the Miami Heat defense in that pre-all star break disaster, and then it was the torn cartilage that sidelined Lin for the Knicks playoff run. Every time, though, it was thought that Linsanity would return, as great as it was the first time, to blow everyone's mind like it's Valentines day 2012 all over again. Now, it seems like time has run out though, on Lin's 15 minutes, at least in New York. The Knicks, by all accounts, will not be matching the Rockets' "ridiculous" offer and Lin will be taking his millions of Asian fans to Houston. We could debate whether or not Lin is a money hungry, ungrateful back up guard with limited skills who just got lucky, or if the Knicks are making the biggest mistake in their history by not holding on to what could be a great, young pro no matter the cost, but that's all conjecture. We have no idea how Lin's career will turn out, if he'll prove himself to be a flash in the pan (albeit a really bright flash) or the second coming of Steve Nash. Either way, it appears his time in New York is done. It was fun while it lasted.

A quick history of important dates in Linsanity

• December 27th, 2011 The Knicks announce they are claiming Jeremy Lin off waivers, making him the first Chinese or Taiwanese player to suit up in the orange and blue. Me and a handful of other Asian Knicks fans are moderately excited even though we know he'll never get off the bench.





• February 3rd, 2012- Lin gets off the bench and actually plays in a loss in Boston. He doesn't contribute much but shows some signs of life (which the Knicks had been sorely missing during this period).






• February 4th, 2012- The day before the Super Bowl, the Knicks are reeling. Playing the third game of the lockout necessitated back to back to back schedule, Mike D'Antoni is willing to try anything short of shaving his moustache to find a winning combination. Lin scores 25 points on an array of layups and jumpers. Knicks fans begin to lose their minds.






• February 10th, 2012- After two more games that saw a few ridiculous plays, including a buzzer beater that caused Clyde Frazier to say "some things are meant to be" and a dunk past John Wall, Lin shows he's not a fluke and might actually be a decent NBA player. In a nationally televised Friday night game against the Lakers he scores 38, outscoring Kobe and causing countrywide LINSANITY. The next week a photo from this game would serve as the first of back to back Sports Illustrated covers featuring Lin, a rare feat for anyone. It's only going to get worse....






• February 14th, 2012- Valentine's day is officially renamed VaLINtine's day. Despite getting torched by Jose Calderon for most of the game, he redeems himself with the Knicks last 6 points including a three pointer to win it with less than a second left on the clock. Mayor Bloomberg proclaims Park Avenue will now be known as Lin Avenue. Lepers flock by the hundreds to Landry Field's couch hoping to be healed. The sun shines for 3 straight days as scientists speculate Linsanity has caused a shift in the earth's axis.






• February 17th, 2012- The end of Linsanity appears to be near as the Knicks crap the bed against the putrid Hornets. The 2012 Hornets suck to begin with in the wake of the Chris Paul trade, but on this night, the Hornets are missing half of their players and feature such greats of the game as Gustavo Ayon and Revis Vasquez. Compounding the Knicks loss is the unfortunate choice of words by an ESPN headline writer. The next night, SNL opens the show with a Linsanity themed sketch. Saturation point has almost been reached.





• February 19th, 2012- The Knicks beat the champion Mavericks (who are still considered a good team at that point). The game is highlighted by a three by Lin over Nowitzki, and a steal and dunk that literally sends the crowd into hysterics. If you could imagine 100 New Year's eves combined with watching 20 world cup championships in the winning country and 20,000 simultaneous orgasms. It would be about half as excited as the Garden crowd is after Lin's dunk. My favorite part is the three grown men hugging on the verge of tears at the 12 second mark but this video does a nice job of summing up Linsanity. After the dunk, you see some dude jumping up and down on celebrity row (where people usually sit quietly all game), Spike Lee wearing a Harvard jersey, a few seconds of delirious fans hugging in the stands like Oprah just gave them a car, and then video from a restaurant in Chinatown of proud Asians who hadn't watched an NBA game since Yao retired. It wouldn't be all laughs from here though.
  
  
  
  
  
• February 20th, 2012- The following day sees the return of Carmelo Anthony from the injury he suffered on an alley-oop pass during the second game of Linsanity. To say people in New York are worried about his co-existing with Lin is an understatement. And, of course, everyone's worst fears are realized as the Knicks get blown out at home by the revenge-minded Nets. Deron Williams dominates Lin all game. Linsanity is dying...

• February 23rd, 2012- Lin is a non factor in a nationally televised game against the Heat in Miami days before the all star break. He appears afraid to even dribble the ball never mind be the swaggering hero that he was for the previous weeks. Lin has been exposed, or so it seems. Countdown to Linsanity's death....





• March 31st, 2012- After a couple weeks of bullshitting that his injury wasn't all that serious, the Knicks announce Lin will have surgery on his knee, conveniently timed after the deadline to renew season tickets. Sneaky, sneaky. Lin still holds out hope he'll return for the playoffs.





• July 15th, 2012- Despite weeks of hearing nothing but how the Knicks will resign Lin no matter what the Rockets offer, it's reported by numerous media outlets that the Knicks will not be matching Houston's offer. This seems all the more likely when it's announced that the Knicks have made a trade for former Knick Raymond Felton. Linsanity is on life support.

And that leads us to today. The Knicks will make a decision tonight on Lin, and either way it will make some people upset. Those three weeks in February have been mythologized since, (there's already been a book that must have been written in about 2 hours) but as hyped as Lin's Knicks career was, some of it was deserved. It all played out like a corny sports movie; frustrated by his greedy, overpaid stars, a beleagured coach grasping at straws puts in the last guy on the bench. An Asian ivy leaguer who was cut from his previous team on Christmas Eve and he plays really, really well for a couple weeks, leading the team to a win streak and becoming a world wide phenomenon. Except those movies always end with the team either winning it all, or learning a valuable lesson in defeat. They don't usually make sequels to these movies because nobody wants to see where the underdog goes once they're on top or what happens to the phenomenon when their time runs out. Usually, the second chapter isn't nearly as exciting. And in some cases, it's almost sad to watch.

The Death of Linsanity

Remember around this time last year when bad boy actor Charlie Sheen took over the world for about a month? His every ridiculous comment or self destructive move was blogged and tweeted about? We couldn't get enough, there was even a catchphrase and a comedy tour. Seems like a million years ago right? Eventually, the Sheen mania died down when we all realized he wasn't really going to die live on television, he went back to being a B level actor, and sobered up. Once the Sheen roast happened on Comedy Central, we all got back to caring about other stuff. I thought about this during the Knicks game the other day when they showed one of those Direct TV commercials where the narrator talks about the increasingly bizarre turns your life will take if you don't subscribe to Direct TV, this one ends with a guy reenacting scenes from Platoon with Charlie Sheen ("Don't reenact scenes from Platoon with Charlie Sheen. Get Direct TV"). Something that would have seemed dangerously insane and hilarious a year ago but now seemed like a reference as dated as the movie Platoon itself. And we're probably going to look back at that 3 week Linsanity stretch the same way a year from now. Whereas Sportscenter dedicated it's entire program to Lin before the Knicks 7th straight win against Sacramento exactly 3 weeks ago, now the Knicks Mavs highlights were relegated to the 15 minute mark after Peyton Manning news, the Big East tournament, the Saints bounty scandal and a Heat blowout over the Nets. The back page of the Daily News this morning was a Jets player saying they need to sign Manning. The Knicks game didn't even appear in the sports pages until after Manning, Mets and Yankees spring training recaps and even last night's St. John's loss of all things. To quote Prop Joe, Linsanity is officially a cadaverous motherfucker. How'd it die as fast as it came to life? Besides being the natural progression of wild phenomenons in the Twitter age, there are a few reasons.

First of all, the surprise factor has totally worn off. It's like meeting a new girl. In the beginning it's exciting and new, you can't get enough, but usually within a month you start looking at new prospects. The Asian kid from Harvard dominating games was shocking, but now he's just another guy in shorts. Secondly, the rest of the league has caught on to Lin's tricks. While in the first couple weeks, he was nearly unstoppable driving to the hoop, finishing at the basket with ease, recently when he makes a move towards the basket, teams either block his shot, knock the ball away from behind (as Mr. D pointed out, Lin has patented the lose the ball in the lane and then look at the ref for a foul move) or force him dead in his tracks where he's forced to pivot and shoot fadeaways or try a standstill layup (not a great shot in basketball). During Linsanity, every big shot he took seemed to go in, including the 3's over Dirk, vs. the Lakers, and the game winner against the Raptors that were probably his signature shots of the run, now he can't buy a basket in the clutch. It's gotten so bad that there's been talk of Baron Davis actually finishing games. Can you imagine Baron's name even being in the same sentence as Lin's two weeks ago unless it was "I can't believe we actually thought Baron Davis was going to be our savior before Jeremy Lin"? The third factor in Linsanity's untimely demise were factors beyond anyone's control, well, besides the NBA schedulemakers that is. The combination of the Knicks' brutal lineup of opponents over these past couple weeks and the long lay-off of the all star break has cooled Linsanity considerably. That feel good 7 game winning streak came against some of the worst teams in the league, a 500 Minnesota team, and the Lakers and Jazz who are two of the worst teams in the league on the road. Now they're playing the big boys and it's been ugly. Opposing point guards are obviously fed up with the hype and are putting up their best numbers of the season (in Jason Kidd's and Deron William's case) or Wilt Chamberlain numbers (in Rondo's case) If the Knicks had somehow won the game in Miami before the AS break, then the mania would have only grown for a week. Instead, Lin laid an egg and Linsanity was left to die a slow death. Subpar to awful games over the past week to mostly good competition have only been the nails in the coffin. And yes, all our worst fears about Carmelo and Amare meshing their talents with Lin seem to have come true. Lin's numbers were expected to drop with the return of the Knick's original stars as his attempts went down. But nobody expected his assists to also go down.

This isn't to say that Jeremy Lin's career or even his marketability are dead. He's hit the expected bumps in the road that any first or second year player would hit, never mind a guy who was undrafted and hadn't played practically at all his first season and a half in the league. And he'll still sell t-shirts, jerseys and whatever sneaker Nike is reportedly releasing, particularly to Asians, of which there are a lot of in the world if you didn't know. But the ridiculous hype and chaos that surrounded every little thing Lin did is over, and for that I guess we should be thankful. Now, he's not a symbol of the American dream, or a Hollywood story come to life or whatever, he's just a decent point guard on a mediocre, underachieving basketball team. And if the Knicks don't learn how to beat good teams on the road and develop some team chemistry soon, Linsanity will be looked back on as nothing more than a cruel tease that momentarily brightened another dark season at the Garden. RIP Linsanity.

PTU Exclusive: More Controversial ESPN Headlines

Linsanity took an inevitable turn into the absurd and racist for about a half hour late last night when some joker thought it would be a good idea to use "Chink" as a Jeremy Lin related headline pun. Even the New York post would probably find that to be in bad taste and the reaction so far has been as expected. Most people might not know that this isn't the first time the Worldwide Leader in Sports has used questionable judgment in their story headlines. We were able to get our hands on some of the other great moments in racist ESPN headline history that didn't see the light of day. Until now, that is.


Victor Cruz: From Dirty Jersey to Spic and Span

Victor Cruz was the Puerto Rican Jeremy Lin and ESPN couldn't pass up an opportunity to capitalize off the salsa dancing half Puerto Rican's heritage and New Jersey upbringing.


Chuck Hayes: Spear Chucker

Former Houston Rocket Chuck Hayes was a victim of an unfortunate first name.


Danilo Gallinari: Guinea Big!

The Italian former Knick came up huge in a win and so did the ESPN headline writers.


Troy Murphy: What A Drunken Irishman

They didn't really try on this one.

Mark Sanchez: Wetback To The Future

Where we're going there are no roads (or tasteful headlines!)


Chien-Ming Wang: Gookie of the Year


Taiwan's former favorite son was a rookie sensation and Asian.

Sheryl Swoopes: Wanna Be Like Dyke!

The WNBA's first active player to come out was also a pioneer in the field of offensive headlines.

Ryan Braun: Juicy Jews

Braun's steroids accusations provided ESPN with the chance to break this headline out. Oy Vey.
As you can see, last night's headline was no fluke. Stay tuned, folks.

Knicks vs Hornets Recap: Can't Lin 'em all

It had to come to an end eventually right? With the unbelievable luck the Knicks have had these past two weeks you knew that eventually things would return to at least a semblance of normalcy. The Knicks came out flat against an awful Hornets team and were running uphill the entire game, a hill that proved too steep to climb even for America's sweetheart. Speaking of Lin, he hit a couple of big shots in the 4th, but once again his propensity for turnovers reared it's ugly head (really the only negative that the Knicks have seen during this run) and this time it really cost the team along with the awful three point shooting. Shumpert played with energy when most of the team didn't, but he also played out of control at times. We'll see what happens when the Knicks welcome back Carmelo and also welcome for the first time J.R. "super perp" Smith this Sunday. The team wasn't going to win every game, but you would have hoped the let down wouldn't have happened against the equivalent of a D-league team dressed like a King cake. Hopefully the bandwagon fans haven't tossed all of their Linsanity shirts aside just yet, though, the season is about to get interesting. Or should we say Linteresting? No, let's not say that. The actual Knicks team will be suiting up soon that consists of Carmelo, Lin, Amare and the rest. Let's see what happens, it should be fun despite the disappointment tonight.

Breaking News: Linsanity continues as TWC and MSG broker peace deal

Breaking news...more details here via business insider:

http://www.businessinsider.com/linsanity-is-back-on-time-warner-twc-has-reached-a-compromise-with-msg-2012-2

Is there anything Lin can't get done? Maybe he is available to play shortstop for the Mets.

Update via the NYTimes: It appears the official announcement of the deal will be delivered by Governor Cuomo along with the Chief Assholes of TWC and MSG this afternoon. 

What If Jeremy Lin Were Black?

Special Prologue by Snoot: Johnny Bagels and Hater J have had some intense email exchanges debating whether the fact Jeremy Lin is Asian is impacting his rapid rise to fame. The vicious email wars wore down on Bagels and he decided not to finish this post. I thought it was a shame for this work to go unpublished, so below you will find the mostly finished thesis of Johnny Bagels. Also, I spent time photo-shopping World Peace's head onto Lin's body and wanted an excuse to post it...ENJOY!
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Noted scholar Floyd Mayweather made a somewhat controversial statement yesterday that has caused a bit of an uproar. In typical idiotic Money Mayweather fashion, he took to Twitter to give his view of the recent Linsanity craze that has been sweeping the nation:

"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise".

This is characteristically stupid and racist and Floyd is just doing his usual race baiting clown act but- I can't believe I'm going to write this- there's an element of truth to what Floyd Mayweather said.

It's patently ridiculous to say that black players do what Lin is doing every day. Sure, it's true that black, white, European or whatever players score in the realm of 25 points and dish out 8 assists every day, but what makes Lin's week and a half so special is exactly that: it's been done in a week and a half. No player ever in the history of mankind has ever scored this many points in his first 6 starts (all wins of course). Not to mention he came out of seemingly nowhere to do this, literally hopping off the couch to rescue a sinking ship. But the truthy part (to quote Stephen Colbert who dedicated part of his show recently to Lin) of what Floyd tweeted is also found in the short time span. The hype machine has been working in overdrive for Jeremy, so much so that he's already made the leap to non sports media star, something that takes most athletes at least their full rookie season to accomplish. How different would the Linsanity craze if he were not the first ever Asian American player in the league, but a run of the mill black dude?

Without a doubt, a black J Lin- for our purposes let's refer to him as Jamaal Jones- would still be a huge star and bring about a great deal of hype if he shared the rest of Lin's story. Jamaal Jones grew up in Palo Alto California to middle class parents, eventually worked his way to Harvard despite attracting barely any offers to play college ball, found a spot on a couple different NBA teams without being drafted and then was chosen to be the Knick's last resort at point guard to unbelievable results. That would be a big deal in the sports world, especially since it happened in the largest market in America for the Knicks. But Jamaal Jones having a great week for the Knicks would not have entire Sportscenter episodes dedicated to him, never mind the CBS nightly news and the aforementioned Colbert Report or the countless other newspapers and tv shows he's been discussed on in the past 11 days. None other than Sarah Palin would not be toteing a bootleg Linsanity tshirt. President Obama had to throw in his two cents. It's deeper than sports. To say that the underdog Ivy Leaguer who slept on his brothers couch last week is enough to cause this level of hype is severely understimating how big Linsanity is right now. It's a bona fide phenomenon, one that is helped in great part by the fact that Jeremy Lin is the first ever Asian American to play in the league, and he's dominating. People don't like to believe that they are affected by stereotypes, but the fact of the matter is, Asians are looked at in America as at best meek and subservient and at worst, weaker than other people physically. An Asian who's not a giant like Yao Ming excelling against African Americans stands out. Just like a black golfer or hockey player stands out. This is nothing against black athletes. It's more a human nature thing to have your attention drawn to what is different. Looking at this phenomenon from a human interest perspective -and not anything else- casual sports fans and those strange souls who have no interest at all in bats and balls are not going to care about some guy playing well for a week in the NBA in February. They just won't. The NBA barely draws any attention anyway, but if Jamaal Jones averaged 25 and 8 and led the team to a 6 game winning streak, it wouldn't matter if he was living in a dumpster 2 minutes before that Nets game tipped off, and he graduated with honors from every Ivy League school on the East coast, a great percentage of Americans would not so much as bat an eyelash. Without the cache of being the Jackie Robinson of ABC's, the story goes from inspiring story of the year to merely inspiring sports story of the year that might get a profile on Nightline or something, but not complete and utter mass Linsanity. There's been a handful of sports stars who have transcended their sport through out history (Fernando Mania, etc). None of them did it by leading an 8 and 15 team to a great week in February. Yes, everything moves faster now and there is of course Twitter and Facebook and ESPN news and even people like us can have blogs examining race in sports. But that doesn't change the fact that a yellow dot stands out in a sea of black and white.

I should stress once more that I am not trying to denigrate black or Asian people in any way. This isn't anything against black or Asian people nor am I saying Asians are any better than other types of people, and I'm not even saying that the majority of Lin's new fans are consciously rooting for him because he's Asian (except for maybe the Asian ones). I'm also not implying that the hypothetical America I'm describing wouldn't root for the hypothetical Jamaal Jones because they were racist or that Jamaal Jones deserved it. What I am saying (and I can't stress this enough) is that him being a minority in his sport (the only God Damn one as a matter of fact) helps Jeremy stand out in a way a member of the majority race in the NBA would not. But it's also true that you can't deny race being the part of any story in America (at least that's what I believe). We don't like to admit it but it informs everything. Presidential elections, what tv shows movies and music we choose to watch and who we choose to hang out with and date. And it affects how we root for athletes. If Tim Tebow were black, regardless of how outspoken he was about his faith, the fanaticism for him would be greatly diminished. He's a broad shouldered, blue eyed, blond haired person who loves Jesus. The ideal athlete for much of America. Take that away and you take away some of his appeal. Eminem is a terrific rapper, (maybe the best ever) but there's a reason he's sold more albums than the entire Wu-Tang clan combined, and it's not his funny lyrics.

But all that is besides the point. Race isn't the only factor in Lin's jaw dropping popularity, not by far. It's not even the biggest factor. It's one of the many factors that have made this the perfect storm of hype. The Harvard and undrafted thing, the New York thing (which is right up there with any other reason), the prevalence of social media and the race thing. Take away one element and the perfect hurricane that is Linsanity is severely downgraded. Not that the hype is undeserved. It's more like Lin deserves the attention that most Americans would not give NBA basketball in February. People always look at the discussion of race as taking away from a person's worth since you're focusing on something they can't control. Race is a dirty word in most circles, particularly in sports, where even acknowledging an athlete's color is grounds for a public crucifixion. But it's naive to think that race doesn't play a part in how everyone is perceived for good or bad. People might first take notice of Lin because he's the small Asian guy dominating a mostly African American sport but they'll stay for the insane passes, clutch shots and finishes at the rim. Even in the current age where that "15 minutes of fame" is seemingly given out to anyone with a Twitter account and a the ability to let cameras follow them around, there has to be a catch to hook people beyond a sweet story and a nice crossover dribble. His race is the gimmick that has to be part of his story, just like if he were 5 feet or 7" feet 8' tall. He would be the ridiculously tall or dwarf like basketball player who's tearing up the league instead of the first ever Asian player who's tearing up the league. It's so much deeper than sports. The fictional Jamaal Jones (if he actually existed) would be another ultra talented black guy in shorts with a charming back story. Sarah Palin wouldn't even give him a second look.

Jeremy Lin: A Less Annoying Chinese Tim Tebow

I've been to playoff games, all-star games, games vs. the Lakers and Celtics and other great teams, as well as all types of late season important basketball contests at Madison Square Garden. And, somehow, an early February game between a 9 and 15 Knicks team without Amare Stoudemire and (for most of the game) Carmelo Anthony and a Utah team led by Raja Bell and Al Jefferson that's 2 and 5 on the road for the season ended up being one of the top 5 most exciting, fun games I've ever witnessed. And it wasn't just because the Super Bowl champs were positioned strategically around the court to maximize the good vibes like the Garden always does with the Giants, but because of a short Chinese guy from Harvard named Jeremy Lin. I had such a blast yelling MVP for a guy who before this weekend had a season high of 7 points that I came home and watched the "Knicks in 60" replay while I ate my Honey Bunches of Oats. You hear the announcers saying stuff like "his spirit just lifts the team" and the crowd loves "everything he does" and how after the ball ended up in his hands off a lucky bounce for the game clinching 3 in the final 2 minutes Clyde Frazier said "some things are just meant to be" and I could only think of one comparison. A marginally talented replacement player who makes up for offensive deficiencies with uncanny toughness, deceptive quickness and great finishing who's lifted a losing team out of the doldrums through an infectious spirit that's already developed a fan base and demonstrated the ability to attract casual fans and practically a laughable cult following. Not to mention I saw at least 5 or 6 cheaply made tshirts dedicated to him tonight in the crowd. Yeah, he's the Chinese Tim Tebow.

Of course we're talking about a two game sample here. Lin could finish the rest of the season averaging 4 points and find himself riding the bench or playing in the D-League by the end of April, or could be replaced by Baron Davis (if he ever puts on shorts again which is looking less and less likely with every missed practice), but it's been a good weekend to be an Asian Knicks fan. The crowds at MSG are usually pretty subdued for regular season games that don't involve guys like Kobe or LeBron at least until the 4th quarter, but something weird happens when Lin is in the game. Every move he makes is cheered wildly by the crowd, there's an audible anticipation every time he goes to the hoop. I imagine this is a lot like how Greg Oden was treated by the Blazers fans as Bill Simmons talks about. The guy can do no wrong. Jesus knows the unwarranted hype for Tebow was beyond annoying, but Lin is a far less divisive type of dude, unless you hate Asians I guess. He does have actual point guard skills though and can at least run a simple pick and roll with Chandler, which is more than we can say about the other out of position shooting guards and forwards who were bringing the ball up previously. But that's not all that is great about Linning time. It sounds real corny, but he shares with Tebow that ability to lift a team just by showing up on the court. Take a look at the video below of all of his points and most of his assists. Grown men are giggling like little girls (including the Knicks bench and a couple Giants players) slapping fives and pumping their fists. People have their hands on their heads and their mouths wide open like they just witnessed a miracle. And everyone is smiling from ear to ear. When's the last time that happened at the Garden? Here's a sample of some of the giddy 327 comments on the Knicks Facebook page last night after the game (spelling and grammatical errors included):

Jeremy!!! keep ballin hard with wisdom and with passion bro... to shine the glory of the Gospel ^_^
and :

Jeremy Lin makes me believe impossible.
let's not forget:

May be the missing piece of the puzzle
and of course:

林 加油 我们华人都支持你


Jeremy might be a born again Christian like Tebow as well but that will always come second to him being an Asian American- the first to ever play in the NBA. Tebow is another blue eyed blond haired white person who is also an outspoken Christian, which totally dominates his narrative. Lin is the little Asian guy that could, his religious beliefs aren't important to anyone. It's sort of part of being Asian that you grow to accept racist jokes (it doesn't bother me) and Carmelo's bow seems to be something like that, but I'm hoping it can become the new "Tebowing". However long the love fest lasts, at least we have something exciting to wake us up from this miserable season. He's making all of us believe impossible for at least a weekend. Behold the greatness if you haven't already in the video below: