All right, I have a linfession to make: in my first BalLIN
post I wasn’t that excited about our boy Jeremy. He just seemed like another Knicks point guard that would
come and go within a week. I felt
obligated to write about him because the Knicks were finally winning again, he
was a good story, and I had been waiting to use that Natalie Portman joke for
like a week.
I
said I would wait to see how he did against the Lakers before I jumped on the
Lin bandwagon, and he more than surpassed my expectations. He was electrLINfying, scoring 38
points against a Lakers team ranked 4th in total defense in the
league. More importantly, the
Knicks won. Even more importantly,
Jeremy Lin is making it cool to be Asian in the NBA again (you know, ever since
Yao Ming ruined it by being a total bust and destroying T-Mac’s career).
What was that? You didn't get enough of LIN in my first post? Wait, you did? Shit, alright, well too bad, my blog, my rules. I'm back doing some LIN-on-LIN-on-LIN anaLINsis on New York’s favorite
Chinese-American heartthrob: 林書豪 (aka Jeremy Lin).
BALLIN 2.0
I’m
going to spare you on all of the ridiculous numbers he’s put up in this past
week, but this if you needed any more reason to believe that Lin is the real
deal, check dis ish out:
Let’s
compare Lin’s stats in his first four starts to the first four starts of some
other notable point guards:
o Magic Johnson: 74 pts 26 assists
o Isiah Thomas: 94 pts 24 assists
o John Stockton: 37 pts 41 assists
o Jeremy Lin: 109 pts 33 assists!!!!!!!!!
Magic?
Isiah? Stockton? Those are some of the best point guards of all-time, and Lin
has put up better numbers (through four starts) than them all. If that wasn’t enough, Lin’s 109 points
are the most points in a player’s first four starts since the ABA-NBA merger in
1976.
Basically, Lin is as hot as Kim
Kardashian, which is much to the dismay of Kris Humphries who got to witness
both Lin and Kim first hand, and now spends his nights alone doing something
else with his first hand (that’s right Humpdaddy, don’t think I forgot about
you).
Anyway,
back to Lin. This kind of start is
unprecedented in the NBA. Usually,
whenever a rookie phenom breaks into the NBA, it’s with a lottery team. The rookie was usually a one and done
in college where he put up insane numbers for a school in the Big East or the
ACC. The rookie then puts up big
numbers in the NBA and, depending on the market size of the team he is on, the
situation plays out in one of two ways:
1.)
He gets drafted by a small market team, plays
there for a few years, struggles with the decision to leave and have a better
chance of winning or remain loyal to the team that drafted him and see if the
team can put the pieces around him necessary for them to win. The team never
gets it done (except in the rare case of Kevin Durant), the superstar shits on
the city that drafted him, and he leaves to a bigger market team where the
pieces are already in place for him to win. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
(ex:
LeBron, Deron Williams, Melo, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard eventually)
2.)
A big market team that has been unusually bad
recently drafts him and he revives basketball in that city. He puts the team on his back until the
team puts the necessary pieces around him (because, you know, they’re a big
market team and they can do that).
They are a contender almost every year, and the team may even win a few
NBA Championships.
(ex:
Kobe, Rose, Pierce, Wade, possibly Blake Griffin if the Clips can keep Chris Paul)
LIN:
The only two schools that offer Lin
a guaranteed spot on their team are Harvard and Brown. The kid doesn’t even get recruited by
Stanford, his dream school, even though he lives within shitting distance of
the campus.
Lin ultimately picks Harvard and
works his ass off for four years. He graduates Harvard as the first player in Ivy
League history to finish his collegiate career with at least 1,450 points
(1,483), 450 rebounds (487), 400 assists (406) and 200 steals (225).
Lin goes undrafted in the 2010-2011
NBA draft and ends up signing with the Golden State Warriors for a one-year
deal that is the NBA equivalence of minimum wage. He never starts a game, and averages only 9.8 minutes in the
29 games that he plays in.
The next season Lin is waived by
the Warriors to free up cap space so that the team can make an offer to
free-agent center DeAndre Jordan.
Lin is claimed by the Rockets, then dumped by the Rockets, then claimed
by the Knicks after Iman Shumpert gets injured and the Mike Bibby’s family
insists that Bibby’s corpse be put into the ground where it belongs.
He got sent down to the D-League,
racks off a triple-double (28 PTS, 11 REB, and 12 AST) against the Maine Red
Claws (the most random name for a team ever), and is called back up to the
Knicks three days later.
On February 4, Lin finally gets his
shot against the Nets and the rest is LINstory.
Lin isn’t a superstar yet (not even
close), but if he ever does become one, his rise to the top will a story for
the ages.
UNDERRATED: This is the first time in
NBA history that there is Double Patrick Ewing Effect in play (with Melo
and Amar’e out), and it’s going to be
interesting to see what will happen when the they get back. If Melo can't form some sort of chemistry with Lin, I'm officially classifying him as a Noble Gas.
Side Note: It’s going to be even more interesting
to see what will happen when Baron Davis gets back.
In the meantime, let’s hope the
Knicks can keep LINning.
Here are some the best of the Lin nicknames, enjoy:
Actual Name: Lin Shu-How
Notable Nicknames:
Lin “Show-U How to”
Ball
Every Day I’m
Hust-LIN
The Fortune Rookie
The John Wall of
China
LINsane in the
Membrane
Earth, LIN, and Fire
The LINja
Shao-LIN Showdown
LIN Diesel
Chocolate Thunder
Shout out to The Dark
Lord Sauron and errebody else who sharing the love
#DJLR
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