Jeremy who? That’s what everybody(including myself) and their mom were saying a few weeks ago when Knicks point guardJeremy Lin, once an unknown Harvard grad, began capturing the world’s attention with an unbelievable performance against the New Jersey Nets. And from there he and New York reeled off 7 straight wins before eventually falling to the New Orleans Hornets, all without the likes of Carmelo Anthony.
But now practically you can’t even go walk down the street without somebody mentioning Jeremy Lin and the countless adjectives attached to his last name like “Lincredible” or “Lindiculous to describe his rise to stardom.
The Taiwanese point guard headed into the All-Star break averaging 22 points and 8 assists over 10 games. Not bad for someone, who just a few weeks ago was living on his brothers couch and a few days away from being cut by the Knicks. But with his contract being guaranteed after his rise to fame, he now rents a rather fancy Manhattan apartment.
Forget though where the Harvard grad lives, the man can simply play some good basketball. The overnight sensation has not only galvanized his team by leading them to one game under give hundred after its loss to Miami Heat , but he has dominated the airwaves all over america and across the world with his record-breaking performances. Against Kobe and the Lakers he tore apart LA’s defense scoring 38 points. Not to be outdone, against the defending champion Mavericks, Lin carved Dallas‘ usually stingy defense for 28 points and 14 assists.
So for the naysayers and doubters, Lin is not just beating subpar teams, he and the Knicks are beating playoff-caliber teams and in dramatic fashion.
With anything though, negatives somehow seep into a story no matter how inspiring it is. Due to Lin being an Asian-American, many professional organizations have come under intense heat for racially motivated headlines, and the latest is one for an ice cream dedicated to the new star.
First , it was ESPN posting a controversial headline on its mobile homepage that said,, “Chink in the Armor” when Lin and the Knicks lost their first game after winning seven in a row. Many took that(Chink) to be a racial slur toward Asians and since then ESPN fired the employee who wrote the headline.
The latest company to come under fire for a racially insensitive act is Ben and Jerry’s who made an ice cream flavor dedicated to Lin. The problem wasn’t there, it was that one ingredient of the ice cream was fortune cookies. The company has since apologized but the damage has already been done.
Aside from the inexplicable decisions by allegedly using Lin’s Asian-American in a negative light, it remains to be seen is whether Lin, now alongside a healthy Carmelo Anthony can find the chemistry to fight for a division title. In two out of the three games that Lin played with Anthony, two of them were losses. Not so much because of the lack of cohesion between the pair, but because of an offensive clinic put on by Nets guard Deron Williams(38pts) and the suffocating defense and constant trapping of Lin by the Heat.
Lin’s points per game are almost guaranteed to drop with the recent addition of Anthony, but it is still vital for him and Anthony to be able to co-exist on the floor effectively in order to have a shot at winning a division title.
The obvious solution to a potential problem: Lin runs the offense as a typical point guard and finds Anthony good shot opportunities. However, with almost anything that’s easier said than done.