LinSanity or just LinLuck?

If you have been keeping an eye on the NBA in the past month or so then you probably have heard about the Linderrella story of the year (or someone who is getting their 5 minutes of fame that just happens to be playing in the Big Apple). If you have not then I am talking about Jeremy Lin a Harvard grad and second year pro for the New York Knicks, or as Shaq tweeted last night “Linderrella Story of the year, Jeremy Lin has lingle handedly played linsational incredible I’m linpressed all he does is Lin Lin Lin gd job”. I think you get what Shaq is trying to say.

The Beatles invaded the U.S. 48 years ago and last night Jeremy Lin invaded Canada and had a game winning 3-pointer over the Toronto Raptors. Lin in his past 5 games which also happen to be his first 5 starts in the NBA he has scored 136 points which is the most all time since the ABA/NBA merger in 1976/77. The next 3 players on the list are Shaq O’Neal 129, Freeman Williams 125 and Jerry Stackhouse (kind of surprised on that one) with 124. What people have failed to notice or have just plain ignored is that he also has 30 turnovers in his first 5 starts which also a record since the merger.

Just a little background on Jeremy Lin, he was born in Los Angeles to Taiwanese immigrants and grew up in Palo Alto (shout out to Stanford) where he was 1^st team all state. He was not really recruited coming out of high school but had a number of walk on offers, notably UCLA. With the number of one and dones that usually are recruited by Ben Howland he probably would have started he junior and senior year at UCLA. Lin ended up at Harvard where he started his last 3years. After Harvard the Golden State Warriors signed him but he spent most of the season bouncing between the Warriors bench and the Reno Bighorns of the D-League. When the lockout ended this fall the Warriors released him, he had cup off coffee with the Rockets before the Knicks picked him up at the start of the season, with a short stint with the Erie BayHawks (shout out Kyle Goldcamp). This brings us back to him blowing up and being the Linderrella story of the season so far.

Now of course the question is how long will Linsanity last now with Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony being back in the line up will that take away some touches from Jeremy? Is Jeremy a Cinderella story or was he good all along. One could argue that there are always shorter point guards coming into the league from smaller division one schools, Mike James (shout out to) Duquesne, J.J. Barea from Northeastern (Ronnie Everhart) or the legendary John Stockton from Gonzaga. Based off of this then it comes down to the coaching and the management of the player. Last time I checked Mike D’Antioni did a pretty good job with Steve Nash running the show with the Suns.

What’s the big deal with Cinderella?

Yes the Jeremy Lin story is great and it is a Cinderella story but it seams like every year in sports there are a hand full of Cinderella stories. There is always one or two in March Madness, like Butler the first time around with Jimmer Ferdette Some no name qb jumps and saves the season for a team like Matt Cassell a career back up and former baseball player at USC taking over for Tom Brady a couple years back. Yes they are all great stories but I am sticking with the greatest one yet. Yes I am talking about that one time when a girl ended up at the ball in a carriage that turned into a pumpkin and the carriage driver into a mouse. The trick is to pick your Cinderella player, team or story when the season starts and blow that horn since you have nothing to lose if the story doesn’t turn out the way its supposed to.

Blast from the past.

For those of you that follow me on facebook know about my weekly blast from the past that I do. Staying with the NBA-Asian Fusion I am going with Wang Zhi Zhi (insert Matty “Ice”Watson-Broughton’s WHO? Comment)

People if you want me to cover a topic or just put togther a Top 10 list then drop me an email or pitch a comment, and remember a score of 0-0 is a draw or LOVE ALL