Jeremy Lin is starting in the NBA for the New York Knicks. He will start in tonight’s game against Utah Jazz. There’s a good chance the readers of this article just read that sentence in the headline, but it seemed to be worth repeating considering it’ll be his first career NBA start and the latest milestone on the journey he took to get to this point in his career.
Lin, the fourth player of Asian-American descent to end up playing in the world’s best basketball league, didn’t take the clearest path to the NBA. He didn’t even take the clearest path to college basketball stardom, really, as Sports Illustrated’s Pablo Torre pointed out in a feature two years ago…
NEW YORK – This was partly about Jeremy Lin and his own personal party at Madison Square Garden Saturday night. It was about Lin, the first NBA player from Harvard in 58 years and only the fourth American-born Asian to play in the league, putting on a show with 25 points, seven assists with the crowd chanting his name. He had toiled in the D-League, been tossed aside by the Warrios and Rockets, and wasn’t sure he’d be long for this part of the basketball world, either. How unsure was he? Lin had been crashing at his brother’s place when coming home late from road games, as the Knicks did after a crushing loss in Boston Friday night. But there was no room at the inn – his brother had ample house guests, Lin said – so he slept on teammate Landry Fields’ couch the night before the best game of his life.
“I think I may just go move in with him,” Lin said. Or get his own place. It’s only one game, but it was precisely the spark the Knicks needed after losing 11 of their previous 13 with an offense predicated on quality point-guard play “grasping at straws” without one, coach Mike D’Antoni said. “The biggest thing is, he’s got a point guard mentality,” D’Antoni said. “He has a rhyme or reason to what he’s doing and players can kind of play off that. Whereas when you don’t know, you’re just grasping at straws. He gives us a good feel. Again, it’s one game, so let’s not get too excited. But he gives us what we sorely need.”
And this is where the story of Lin having a career night turns into a story that is really about something else. Having a point-guard play the way Lin did Saturday night – attacking and beating pick-and-roll double teams, aggressively getting into the paint and scoring – only underscored how lost the Knicks were without that. And how lost they will continue to be if they don’t keep getting it.
Was it a fluke that Lin made 10 of 19 from the field – jumpers, floaters, reverse layups – on his dream night? Yeah, that’s not going to happen again. But the way Lin directed the Knicks’ directionless offense? The way he gave it purpose and an actual method of attack? Having seen him a time or two in the D-League, where he was the best player on the floor of every game I’ve seen in person, Lin can do that.
But the fact that D’Antoni already said he was thinking seriously about starting Lin Monday night against the Jazz? That speaks more to the Knicks’ state of desperation than anything else. They’re going nowhere without a point guard to run the offense, and who knows when Baron Davis is going to be ready. And when he’s ready, who knows how much of Baron Davis is going to show up.
So for now, for this snapshot in time, the Knicks have a point guard. Dare I say it was the best a point guard has played for D’Antoni since a gentleman named Steve Nash was doing stuff like this every night for him. So Jeremy Lin saved the Knicks from their 12th loss in 14 games, saved D’Antoni from another day of speculation that he’ll be fired, and generally just took a tense, desperate situation and let everyone breathe a little.
“I’m just thankful to be here right now for this team,” Lin said. Believe me, the team feels the same way.
Jeremy Lin just had a career game against the New Jersey Nets with 25 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds. I hope to get a video highlight of his game up soon.
But for now, here’s the Lin video against Boston – where Lin entered the game in the 2nd quarter and was on ESPN,
Fresh off his triple double game for Erie Bayhawks, Jeremy Lin had his best game yet as a New York Knick. In 5 minutes of play, Lin shot 2/2 FG and 4/4 FTs. Lin also added 4 assists and 2 rebounds and a steal/block. Watch his minutes here,
Basketball legend Wataru “Wat” Misaka turned 88 last month, and he still wakes up every weekday at 5:30 a.m. to work as an electrical engineer in Utah, 35 miles outside of Ogden, where he was born. ”Clean living and green tea,” he gives as the reasons for his longevity.
It turns out Misaka, who considers himself an “old, stick-in-the-mud country boy,” has only spent about three of those 88 years outside of his native Utah. In the mid-1940s, he took two years off from playing at the University of Utah to serve in the U.S. Army. The remaining time, Misaka was in New York as a member of the Knicks. But he wasn’t just another name on the roster.
Misaka is Japanese-American, and when he was drafted in 1947 — after helping lead the Utes to the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT championships — he became not only the first Asian to enter the NBA (then called the Basketball Association of America), but the first non-white player in the league. He came before Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper and Sweetwater Clifton broke the color barrier for black players.
The first year of the draft was 1947, and Misaka didn’t even realize there was one before he heard he was going to New York, where he…
Jeremy Lin and Jerome Jordan became the first Knicks ever assigned to the D-League on Tuesday, when team officials sent both players to the Erie BayHawks.
Lin, an undrafted point guard from Harvard, was signed by the Knicks in December to provide bench depth after Iman Shumpert was injured. Jordan, a 7-foot center, was a second-round pick in 2010 who played abroad for a year before joining the Knicks. Neither player was in Coach Mike D’Antoni’s regular rotation.
Under N.B.A. rules, Lin and Jordan will continue to earn their Knicks salaries while playing in the D-League, and they will remain on the Knicks’ roster; the move does not free up any room to sign additional players. The Knicks have signed a number of D-League players over the last few seasons. Until now, however, they had never used the minor league as a tool to develop their own prospects.
It is undetermined how long Lin and Jordan will play in Erie, but both could use the work. Lin had played just 16 minutes over five games, Jordan 29 minutes over six games. Lin, who formerly played for the Golden State Warriors, thrived in the D-League last season, averaging 18 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists for the Reno Bighorns.
Highland (10-8) of Warrenton used solid free-throw shooting down the stretch to ice a 76-70 win over host Hampton Roads Academy (11-4) despite a career-high 41-point performance by Chris Tang.
Chris Tang is a 6’3″ sophmore guard. Tang led his team last year in points 17ppg as a freshman and was all-state in Virginia. Tang has improved his numbers this year. He is a player to watch and has good potential to be a future NCAA D1 player.
Bad news. The Warriors waived guard Jeremy Lin, the team announced Friday — the first day of training camp.
Lin, 23, was due to make nearly $800,000 and was going to have trouble beating out rookie guard Charles Jenkins for backup minutes at point guard. The move indicates the Warriors are trying to find cap room to make free-agent offers. They’ve signed Jenkins but haven’t inked fellow rookies Klay Thompson or Jeremy Tyler.
Lin went to Palo Alto High and Harvard and was one of the first Asian-Americans to make it to the NBA. He appeared in 29 games last season as a rookie, averaging 2.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists a game. He had several stint with the Reno Big Horns of the NBA Development League, appearing in 20 games and averaging 18 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists a game.
