NBA has a it's own version of Tebow-mania and this is even better because Jeremy Lin is a lot more of an improbable star than Tebow. The Palo Alto born, Harvard educated, Taiwanese American is taking Madison Square Garden and the NBA by storm. He has now had 4 great games and tonight's 38 points and 7 assists were against Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers. The Knicks won and Bryant learned quickly how good this guy is after pretending to not know him yesterday. How can the great Kobe Bryant be aware of the lowly Lin? Well, he knows him now that Lin dropped 38 on his face and sent the Lakers away losers. He is quick, smart, crafty and talented. He is also humble and classy. He has a goofy shooting motion, but is currently shooting 53% on the season. He is definitely a good fit for that system with Mike D'Antoni like every talking-head is saying and I have to say, as somebody who watched the Suns for years with D'Antoni and Nash, Lin does look a little like Nash in that offense. Of course, he is not as great as Nash with either his shot or his vision, but he sure is playing well in that system. He deserves a lot of credit for making the most out of a friendly system.
There have been other rags to riches stories in the NBA with undrafted rookies and so on, but Linsanity is different because of his background. If this was a black kid from Wichita state, he won't be the national phenomenon that Lin is now. This is an unique situation and he seems like a good kid. Great story for the NBA just in time after the Super Bowl. Lin has been lucky with all the injuries with the Knicks. It is going to be interesting when the stars come back. Amare will only make him better. With an athlete like Amare running with him, he will do better and this offense will look even more like the Suns offense back in the day. Amare knows how that works and he will fit in. The real trouble is Carmelo. He is fast earning a valid reputation of being a ball-stopper and he can stop Linsanity on it's tracks. NBA is a star driven league and you would be foolish to pick the coach and an unproven player ahead of one of the biggest scorers in the league. But if D'Antoni and Lin can keep this going, I would strongly consider trading Carmelo away. I know I am getting way ahead of everything here, but I like D'Antoni and now Lin enough to say that if Melo doesn't fit in, ship him out. Knicks have been losing big and he was not a good fit for that system long before linsanity started crushing twitter. Melo forces a different system on you. The other issue for Lin is going to be when Baron Davis comes back. At this point, the starting job should be Lin's to lose and I think it will be. It is amazing that we are talking about Baron Davis backing up Jeremy Lin. That's how far this guy has come in exactly a week. Enjoy the ride Mr. Lin.
We live in a twitter and smartphone age of instant gratification and constant attention and Lin is the biggest story going right now. Speaking of the smartphone age, the biggest stories coming out of the Super Bowl last weekend were all stupid reflections of where our culture is headed right now. The first one was about Gisele sticking up for her husband Tom Brady and thrashing his receivers. The wife or the girlfriend bad-mouthing teammates is the worst look for an athlete and at first, I was shocked the image conscious Brady let that happen. Then I looked at the video and she was not even talking to a camera. She was just chatting with a bunch of friends, but in this day and age, you have to assume somebody is shooting and recording you and that's exactly what happened to her. It was a probably embarrassing that it got out and she should be careful in the future, but the way the media handled it, it sounded like she criticized Wes Welker in an interview with Bob Costas on national TV. Brandon Jacobs and the Giants responded and I am not sure if they even knew the context or were just misled by the media's coverage of it. Then comes the Gronk dance without the shirt. That is a bad look for any guy on a normal Friday night in July, but once again, it got out on youtube and everybody made a big deal out of it. But it was a party thrown by the owner of the Patriots and he was dancing with his teammates. Bad, but not the worst thing like the media made it out to be. If the players can't party after a Super Bowl loss, why are the owners hosting one? Where's the accountability there?
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