Jeremy Lin for the Win
If you have not heard of Jeremy Lin or what they are calling the "Linsanity" sensation by now, you better read on.
Lin is the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese descent, who graduated from Ivy League school Harvard. In year 2010, he declared for NBA draft then went undrafted, later to be picked up by Golden State Warriors then waved off the team. This year, Houston Rockets (in which China legend Yao Ming used to played in) picked him up for few days and later got cut.
Back in the biggest basketball city in United States, New York Knicks were desperately looking for a point guard who could run Mike D'Antoni's pick & roll offensive style and trying to keep up their playoff hope along side with one of the game's biggest star Carmelo Anthony. When Carmelo went down with a groin injury, New York's hope of making it into playoff was nearly shattered. They then picked up Jeremy Lin for a non-guarantee contract without much expectations. Lin took over his first starting role against New Jersey Nets on 4th February an torched one of the leagues's best point guard Deron Williams with 25 points, 7 assist, 5 rebounds along with a big W for the Knicks. On his 2nd start, he scored 28 points & 8 assits and got Knicks another big win again. Though many basketball critics were most likely to judge this Linsanity as a "fluke" or cinderella run. As i am writing this article, Knicks have won 7 straight in a row and Jeremy Lin was the biggest reason why they are winning. He even shot a game winning 3 pointer against Toronto Raptors a couple of days back. (Check out his stats on espn here)
This Linsanity phenomenon did not only bring wins to New York Knicks, it even boost viewership on NBA as a whole with greater China and Asian viewers taking interest in this Asian decendent phenom. His Knicks jersey sale just over-took reigning MVP Derrick Rose as the top seller on NBA.com in less than 2 weeks. His career stats are on par with the greats Michael Jordans, Lebron James and Shaq. We can imagine how many China sports brands are aftering him but the last we heard, the sportswear giant, Nike, is also on this hot pursuit (though he is already wearing Nike as part of his team shoe).
Will Linsanity show rolls on and open up more opportunities for our fellow Asian players to enter the world stage of basketball? We surely think so
Jeremy Lin vs Kobe & the Lakers
Jeremy Lin vs John Wall & the Wizards with a dunk
Jeremy for the win vs Toronto Raptors
Images: Getty Image/ NBA.com



