Jeremy Lin has become an international icon overnight but he hasn’t done it alone. The last 10 days have completely changed the fate of the Knicks season and possible Mike D’Antoni’s future.
Lin-sanity might have a nickname recycled from Vince Carter’s Toronto Raptors heyday but the buzz around Jeremy Linand the New York Knicks is unlike anything the NBA has seen. This meteoric rise has been compared to that of Tim Tebow’s emergence but it’s not a valid one. Tebow was arguably the biggest star in college football history and was talked about from the time he was setting high school football records and having laws named after him as a home schooled high school senior. Tebow was unorthodox but never an unknown. Before Lin became an overnight NBA superstar, he warmed the Knicks bench by day and slept on couches by night.
Lin didn’t slowly work his way into the rotation like undrafted superstars from years past. On Sunday, four-time Defensive Player of the Year, Ben Wallace set the NBA record for most games played by an undrafted player but he didn’t become a fan favorite until his fifth season. Instead Lin went from a benchwarmer to averaging 26 and 8 in a matter of 24 hours. His celebrity rise has only been compounded by his meteoric rise taking place in a Knicks jerset along with his status as the only Asian-American starting point guard in NBA history.
His breakout season is a lot like the New York Giants’ Victor Cruz but at least Cruz gave us a screening of his breakout season during the 2010 NFL preseason. However, the NFL and NBA have different dynamics. Superstars emerge from late round picks and undrafted player on a regular basis in the NFL because of the quantity of players that teams must scout each year for their 52-man rosters.
