Lin-ing isn't everything: it's the only thing

Good morning. Welcome to the wonderful world of sports. If you have not yet adjusted your clocks and watches from “Tebow Time” to “Lin-sanity,” please do so now.

To any NBA fans out there, I am sincerely sorry, but the professional sport of basketball has not intrigued me for quite some time... that is, until now.

For years, NBA recaps have seemingly been an exhausted highlight reel for names like “Kobe,” “Shaq” and “King James,” “The Chosen One,” “Bron-bron” or whatever LeBron James’ devoted followers want to call him this week.

Not to take anything away from these athletes. They are all very talented in their own ways, as are many others. Blake Griffin’s dunks are spectacular, and Dwight Howard’s rejections are illustrious. I admire their stats and highlights. They’re impressive, I know. But after a while, it seems to get stagnant.

But for the past two weeks, something’s been... different. I’m afraid I have come down with a contagious case of what is commonly referred to as “Lin-sanity.”

For those of you who don’t have your television constantly fixed on ESPN, who don’t have four sports channels programmed into your radio’s preset stations, who don’t wake up in the morning to a fresh, daily podcast of Mike and Mike, let me bring you up to speed.

The New York Knickerbockers, otherwise known as the Knicks, have been a sorry team for quite some time. Of the past 11 seasons, the Knicks have only made the playoffs three times, and they lost in the first round every time. Not since the likes of a particular Knicks center by the name of Patrick Ewing has the franchise been one worth cheering for.

Last year was the first over-.500 season that the Knicks recorded since their 2000-2001 year, but even then, they only went 42-40. This mild success was largely attributed to the acquisition of former Phoenix Suns star Amar’e Stoudemire.

By February of 2011, the Knicks picked up all-star Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets, and after yet another season fell short of high hopes and expectations in the Big Apple, the Knicks followed up with the signing of Tyson Chandler, a defensive stud who had just celebrated a championship with the Dallas Mavericks, with anticipation of big things in the 2011-2012 season.

But as with all professional sports, the Knicks were met by some unforeseen setbacks this year. Anthony suffered a groin injury earlier this month that benched him for five games over the past week and a half. Stoudemire missed four games in early February after his older brother was killed in a car crash. With a 9-15 record forecasting another subpar season, Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni was forced to make a move for his team, for the franchise and, potentially, for his career.

On Feb. 4, during the Knicks’ game against the New Jersey Nets, his eyes shifted to a 23-year-old bench-warmer Jeremy Lin, a Harvard grad who had received no athletic scholarships out of his California high school, who had gone undrafted in his attempt to enter the NBA in 2010 and who had been waived by two other NBA teams over the past year before New York gave him a shot.

But, seeing a golden opportunity before him, Lin did not disappoint. He scored 25 points, pulled down five rebounds and dished up seven assists – all career highs – as the Knicks picked up a 99-92 win over the Nets.

After some talk between a recovering Anthony and Coach D’Antoni, Lin earned his first NBA start in the very next game, as the Knicks took on the Utah Jazz. Lin scored 28 points and had eight assists. Next, the Knicks headed to Washington to take on the Wizards. There, Lin knocked in 23 points and 10 assists, earning his first double-double.

As heads started to turn toward the newly revitalized Knicks and their fresh young go-to point guard, there were plenty of doubters. “Beginner’s luck” and “rookie fluke” were phrases at the tips of the tongues of many nay-saying sports analysts, who assumed the Lin hype would be short-lived, especially when the Knicks were scheduled to take on Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

But Lin had other plans. On Feb. 10, he scored a new career-high 38 points (four more than Bryant in that game) and registered seven assists as the Knicks toppled the Lakers, 92-85. The next evening, Lin contributed 20 points and eight assists as the Knicks pushed past the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The win made five-in-a-row for New York and four consecutive victories for Lin as an NBA starter. It pushed the Knicks into playoff contention, improving them to eighth overall in the Eastern Conference. But, more importantly, it put Lin in the record books.

Lin had scored 109 points in his first four career starts in the NBA, which nudged him past names including Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan, who had held the previous top three records, since the NBA and ABA (American Basketball Association) merger in 1976.

Lin became the first athlete with at least 20 points and seven assists in each of his first four NBA starts. His No. 17 Knicks jersey has been the top seller for the past week, and as ticket sales spiked, the corporate stock of Madison Square Gardens, home of the New York Knicks, reached an all-time high. Coincidence? I think not.

Despite the Knicks’ impressive turnaround, most of which had been attributed to a true underdog – an NBA backup, ivy-league grad, of an Asian-American persuasion, who only two years ago was crashing on his brother’s couch, contemplating playing basketball overseas if he couldn’t get into the NBA – the doubters were still in full force.

Boxing great Floyd Mayweather, who seems at ease being in a controversial spotlight, commented on Twitter, “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”

While Lin is one of few Asian-Americans to play in the NBA – and the first ever American player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent – his performance and the media hype reach much further than race.

If an African-American NBA player made his debut shattering records set by Iverson, Shaq and Michael Jordan, we’d definitely be talking about him, as well. While only half a dozen games may be a small sample to analyze, his per-game average of 27.8 points is topped only by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James – both of whom are African-American, but no doubt recognizable, household names in the sport of basketball. Just below him are Kevin Durant, who is African-American, and Kevin Love, who is white. This is a craze fueled by stats and numbers, Floyd, not ethnicity.

Others claim the hype over Lin would not be the same if he were playing in a city other than New York. That may be true, but unless this prodigy is traded, I don’t see this becoming a factor. New York’s got the money, and now they’ve got the fans. We might as well get used to it.

Sports analysts who are still unwilling to jump on the bandwagon warn, “Wait until Anthony and Stoudemire are back. See if he performs the same.”

Obviously, when a team returns talented athletes to the lineup, there will need to be some gelling of sorts needed to maintain a certain amplitude of success. But all that will do is force defenses to cover more all-star players.

Case-in-point, New England head coach Bill Belichick’s choice to mark-up defense on the New York Giants’ Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, rather than Mario Manningham, during the final minutes of Super Bowl XLVI. Outcome: a prosperous New York team. Skilled teammates will find a way to continue their success.

Mulling over this Jeremy Lin mania at the Dover Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday evening, and whether or not I truly was giving the young stand-out too much credit, I caught the middle of the fourth quarter as the hosting Toronto Raptors held a lead of a dozen points over the Knicks with roughly 10 minutes left in the game.

Perhaps this would be the Knicks’ first loss since Lin became a part of the starting lineup. Perhaps Lin’s debut would come to a crashing halt, and he’d be escorted out of the stadium with taunting chants of opposing fans bellowing, “Overrated!”

But Raptor turnovers led to Knicks rebuttals and baskets, and, before I knew it, Lin and a returned Stoudemire were mounting a comeback. Lin, albeit shaky at the foul line for most of the evening, managed to knot the score at 87 apiece with a layup, and the foul. A crucial turnover by the Raptors put the ball back in Lin’s hands, and he casually dribbled down the court before pulling up for the game-winning three-pointer. And, once again, I was a believer.

After netting 27 points in the sixth straight win for the Knicks and securing a new career-high 11 assists in a game, Lin rewrote history books, again, scoring 136 points in his first five NBA starts, passing O’Neal (129), Freeman Williams (125), Jerry Stackhouse (124) and Dominique Wilkins (124), who held the previous records.

Maybe it’s just a phase. Maybe this obsession will soon outlive its welcome in the Garden. Say what you will, but for the time being, when Lin’s on the court, there is no shortage of excitement... or puns, for that matter.

So, until the Lin-tensity and Lin-fatuation subside, you might as well sit back, get comfortable and join the Lin-sanity!