Jeremy Lin's just not all he was hyped up to be |
In all my 14 or so years of consciously watching sports and storing sports memories in my memory bank, there had been no sensation as unbelievable as Jeremy Lin last year in the months of January and February. He exploded onto the scene in the greatest city in the world and somehow transformed the struggling Knicks into the league's most exciting team. His performances during the infamous Linsanity-driven seven-game winning streak were so electric and awe-inspiring that it made a lot of people just laugh. His shredding of Kobe's Lakers, the of dropping a game-sealing three right in Dirk's 7-foot face, and the buzzer beater in Toronto were some of the most ridiculous moments ever witnessed. But the Lin-conducted train stopped in South Beach later in February when LeBron turned Linsanity into mince meat and that train never ever left the station again.
After telling the Knicks he wasn't going to play in the playoffs because of a "questionable" knee, Lin basically told them he wanted to get paid and didn't care about the team. Fair. I get it. You don't want to bust up your knee and never get that fat pay check. But he should have never expected it from the Knicks, and when they declined to match the Rockets absurd offer, it was clear that Lin wasn't a high priority on the team's offseason check list. They signed Kidd, they traded for former Knick Raymond Felton and signed Argentinian star Pablo Prigioni; the Knicks never looked back.
Lin went down to a under-talented Rockets team and was claimed to be the cornerstone of the franchise, that was until Houston acquired super sub James Harden and Lin basically became an afterthought. Harden stole the show night one, night two, and Linsanity drifted further and further into the history books. So far through 11 games, Lin has been relatively ineffective. He's shooting a putrid 34.2% from the field, he hasn't made a three since November 12th and is averaging 34 uninteresting minutes on a 4-7 Rockets squad. All of this is happening while the Knicks are 8-1 and their three point guards are playing extremely well. Raymond Felton has been playing so well that people in New York have a hard time remembering why they were clamoring over Lin.
So what happened to this guy? There's no way that stretch of brilliancy last winter was fraudulent right? You can thank the point guard god himself, Mike D'Antoni for Lin's sensational run. His wide-open system, combined with the emergence of Steve Novak perfectly matched the Harvard-product's wide-open, wild style of play. D'Antoni became confident in Lin, and Lin then became confident in himself and the rest was history. And history it will most likely always be. I wasn't hum-hum about bringing Lin back, he was a nice player and deserved a chance to come back to NY, but at the right price. Houston's offer was out of this world, and once the offer was tabled the Knicks couldn't say yes. They knew he wasn't that good, and now we're starting to learn that as the general public. I don't fathom Lin to be any better than a 16-point, 7-assist kind of guy and that's at his absolute best. He can't really shoot, he can't go left, and he is more turnover prone than Jay Cutler on primetime television.
Lin will get a chance to face his former squad on Friday night and he should be putting on his fanciest dancing shoes, but the only one dancing when it's all said and done will be Raymond Felton, Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks. Linsanity was a flash-in-the-pan and that's all it will ever be.
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