Jeremy Lin Shoes: Nike Wise to Believe in Longevity of Linsanity

Nike is throwing a mountain of cash, time and hours of development at Jeremy Lin and the image America seems to eat by the spoonful, and it's a brilliant move. 

Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News reports Nike will extend the contract they already have with Lin and create his own custom shoe.

The report issues the move is to skirt another company from swooping in on a mania that is threatening to trump anything Tim Tebow could have caused. 

This is nothing new. Nike banks on athletes' fortunes like stockbrokers read the momentum of companies—it's all an investment and a good part of it is a gamble. 

However, this is not just a spur-of-the-moment, shoot-from-the-hip decision. This is a calculated investment in a player that proves with every game that he has staying power, and that is needed with a shoe deal like this. 

Michael McCarthy of USA Today reports Nike is about to sink a great deal of effort into these custom shoes. 

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The Swoosh could also be planning a Lin shoe, ESPN Radio reported last week. If so, it would be likely be a player-exclusive shoe, rather than signature shoe, which would take far more time, money and resources to put together.

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It's hardly jumping on a bandwagon because such things fizzle out and die as quickly as they start. This is a move to solidify the brand with an athlete that will be owning the point-guard position of some team for years to come. 

Lin has averaged 14.8 points and nearly six assists per contest. The remarkable stat is his PER, which is a measure of a player's per-minute production and efficiency, a stat used heavily by ESPN's John Hollinger. 

Lin's PER is 24.07 for the season—good for eighth in the league—right behind Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard, and above players like Kobe Bryant and Blake Griffin. 

This is after having played 20 games, 11 of which he was a crucial part of the team's success. That success, by the way, has the Knicks at 9-2. 

Lin has talent, and we all better get used to seeing him on the court as a starting point guard that matters. 

The hype will end, as all such things do in this country. 

Another flavor of the moment will come to steal us all away, but Lin will have long since established himself as an integral part of this league. 

There is no way of knowing if he will ever be an All-Star player, but he will most certainly be a starter on a team that plays in a gigantic market, and that makes Nike's move a brilliant one. 

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