Jeremy Lin, N.Y. Knicks point guard is being touted as the savior of the Knicks offense. His coach, Mike D’Antoni hopes Lin will save his job in N.Y.
The second year player out of Harvard, where he played without a scholarship has kicked around until now.
Signed after not being drafted by his hometown Warriors he was cut in the pre-season, picked up by the Rockets and cut by them too.
The Knicks picked him up when their injury carousel began two days after the first games were played in December, and he has played his typical role of fill in, until last Saturday night.
He put up 25 points against the Nets in 36 minutes off the bench and in his first start last night he had Twitter buzzing with his stat line against the Utah Jazz: 28 points, eight assists and two steals.
He tired towards the game’s end and was on the wrong end of eight turnovers, but D’Antoni let him play 45 minutes.
“I am riding him like Secretariat”, D’Antoni said to media after the game, acknowledging that Lin was on the floor a long time. Who could blame him with the young man still producing in the fourth quarter.
D’Antoni has no choice if he wants to put someone on the floor that can distribute and score. He lost Carmelo Anthony to yet another injury in the first quarter and he was playing without star Amare Stoudemire who was with his family after the death of his brother.
The sharks were circling for D’Antoni after the Knicks’ terrible start of 8-15 before Lin took over the point.
The N.Y. Daily News confirmed Lin’s arrival on the big stage by running this headline, “Knicks Keep on Lin-ing, Beat Jazz.” The cringe-worthy ethnic mis-speaking reference, is classic tabloid jingoism, which would have caused a stir if Lin weren’t of Chinese heritage, rather than Japanese.
Between his coach saying he was gonna ride him like a race horse and the Daily News offering its own unique welcome, Jeremy Lin has to wonder if it’s all a dream.
After all, the Garden crowd chanted “M-V-P” from the rafters, with Carmelo looking on. If it’s a dream, maybe Lin will be happy to be used like Secretariat while “Lin-ing”.
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