Jeremy Lin: The rise of New York’s point guard

Two weeks ago Jeremy Lin was sleeping on his brother’s sofa, Tuesday night he hit the game winning shot for the New York Knicks with 0.5 seconds left to become the most-talked about athlete in American sport.

Inspiring a Knicks side without Carmelo Anthony to six straight wins including a career-high 38 points against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, New York has found a new hero.

Linsanity to the rescue!

This is not the first time the Knicks faithful have prematurely jumped on the bandwagon to celebrate an athlete though. Following the high-profile arrivals of ‘Melo and Amare Stoudemire last season, fans were expectant of championship-level basketball but that never turned up.

Mike D’Antoni’s team were defeated in four straight games in last year’s Playoffs by the Boston Celtics before starting this season an unimpressive 8-15. The one-dimensional play of ‘Melo was becoming an increasing problem while murmurs surfaced questioning D’Antoni’s ability to coach a team without Steve Nash as well as a possible return to coaching for Phil Jackson.

All of these troubles appeared to have been brushed under the carpet following Lin’s heroic game-winning shot against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night though. Lin has scored a total of 136 points in his first five career starts. That’s the most by anyone since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976, taking over Shaquille O’Neal (129). On top of that he also possesses a steady handle of the ball, a strong awareness of his teammates and a clever ability to score at the rim.

While Lin already has a sizeable following as the first American-born NBA player of Taiwanese descent, his popularity on and off the court are likely to continue to grow.

After graduating out of Harvard University Lin earned himself a contract with the Golden State Warriors for the 2010/11 season.  Following a year in which he switched between the NBA D-League and the Warriors bench, Lin was released by Golden State.  After signing for the Houston Rockets he played two preseason games before the Rockets decided to waive his contract in order to clear space on the payroll to sign centre Samuel Dalembert.

On December 27th the New York Knicks claimed Lin off waivers to make him their fourth choice point guard.  A late collapse to Boston and injuries to Baron Davis and Mike Bibby gave Lin his chance against the New Jersey Nets on February 4th and the rest, as they say, is history.

While Lin’s recent road to success has been a surprising one, the return of ‘Melo and the issues surrounding his compatibility with D’Antoni’s offensive system and Lin’s team-first principle has left many questioning what the season will hold for the Knicks.

Whether or not Lin’s recent heroics can last is another question but if Knicks fans are happy then something big must seriously be stirring in New York.