Once a little-known D-Leaguer, Lin is now the main attraction in the country’s biggest market. The humble 23-year-old has taken the NBA by storm the past week, and in the process, he’s given the New York Knicks something to believe in.
“What he’s doing is amazing,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said after his team’s fourth straight win. “He answered a lot of questions tonight.”
On Thursday night Kobe had no idea who Lin was, on Friday he changed his tune. “Players don’t usually come out of nowhere,” Bryant, who scored 34 points on 11-of-29 shooting, said after the game. “If you go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning, but no one ever noticed. … It’s a great story. It’s a testament to perseverance and hard work. I am sure he has put in a great deal of work to always have that belief in himself, now he has the opportunity to show it.”
The Lin Story will one day be a movie played by an actor horrible at basketball, but for now here is how the story goes. After going undrafted out of Harvard, Lin signed on with his hometown Golden State Warriors, where he played sparingly in a reserve role last season.
The Warriors waived him Dec. 9, and the Houston Rockets quickly scooped him up, but the Rockets let him go before the season even started.
The Knicks grabbed him off waivers Dec. 27, but after struggling to find a place for Lin in the rotation, the Knicks sent him down to the D-League. In his only game with the Erie BayHawks, Lin posted a triple-double, scoring 28 points to go with 12 assists and 11 rebounds — certainly enough to warrant a recall to the NBA, but not yet enough to get him into the lineup.
Finally, last Saturday, he got his chance, and he made the most of it, scoring 25 points and dishing out seven assists in 36 minutes off the bench in a win over the Nets. His showing earned him his first NBA start Monday, and he responded with 28 points and eight assists in a win over Utah.
Tuesday night, Lin’s contract became guaranteed and on Wednesday, Lin outplayed John Wall, scoring 23 points to go with 10 assists in a win over the Wizards. Then Friday was the ultimate validation for a player who wondered whether he’d ever make it at the game’s highest level.
“The journey was very different,” Lin said. “Getting waived twice, going to the D-League four times, just fighting for a spot in any rotation, and being basically a 15th guy on a roster, that’s tough at times.”
Jeremy Lin has at least 20 points, 5 assists and has shot over 50 percent in each of his last 4 games. The only other player to have a streak that long this season is LeBron James, who has done it 3 times.
