Jeremy Lin's underperformance last night might have been a mixed blessing. |
Finally, finally this whole Linsanity fiasco is over. As much as I've enjoyed every minute of the 8 Knicks wins thanks in large part to Lin, I'm seriously glad it's over. It was certainly overwhelming, to say the least.
Ok, we get it. The Heat dominated Lin, made him look like a school child. Miami is a damn good team, and it was going to take a seriously amazing game from Lin, Amar'e or 'Melo to win, especially in Miami. None of those three turned in a great performance, and so Linsanity, for now, is stopped. The national audience saw him implode right in front of their eyes and just as fast as they knighted him, they have goodnight-ed him. People are leaping off the Lin bandwagon, and thank God, it was just too much weight for any individual to hold.
Lin's last week or so has been absolutely insane. Everyday a new interview, a new photoshoot, a new article written about him. Not even Lebron James or Kobe Bryant have had weeks like Lin just did. It was most certainly overwhelming to him and while he handled it like a champ, it was going to result in a bad game here and there. Lin just picked the wrong team to have a bad game against... or was it the right team? He now returns to normality. He's a good point guard on a contender whose main focus is winning, not gaining national attention or creating a phenomena. It's time for the Lin and the Knicks to start building chemistry with all the new acquisitions they've just gotten a hold of. No more extracurricular nonsense, no more pressure(except from the New York Media) it's just simply basketball.
So last night's loss might have been the best thing for Mr. Lin and his Knickerbockers. If they had beaten Miami, All-Star weekend surely would have been about him and only him. For another few days everyone and their mother would be talking Linsanity. Instead, he gets to go enjoy his appearance in the Rising Stars Challenge and rest up for these 5 days. He'll have two practices next week to adjust to the newly discovered Lin-stopping defense, which is just to trap, trap, trap. The Knicks will then play the Cavs on Wednesday and life will go on. Lin and his Knicks, as one unit, will trudge on towards a playoff berth and people will start to forget about this phenomena and realize that this is just a guy on a team trying to win a championship.
From now on it's about the New York Knicks, not Linsanity, nor any other ridiculous phenomena the world wants to jump on.
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