Jeremy Lin Proves Hype Spreads Much Too Quickly in 2012

Let's see, this week's superstar heroic fun guy of the moment is Jeremy Lin. Mr. Lin, come on down and collect your prize of incessant discussion on where you stack up next to other talented athletes. 

Have you heard about Jeremy Lin? Well, maybe you didn't hear about him, that would have been so 1980's. You may have seen clips on your smart phone or saw a brief blast of 140 characters on Twitter. 

The point is you have heard of him. 

Rewind couple of decades ago and athletes had to string together a few dozen games to get the notice of a small niche of the sports world. When a title or two and you can finally relax into the realization you were a household name. 

Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin and the like would have all been received as terrific stories in a Sports Illustrated back page decades ago. 

You might have stopped a buddy and asked him if he heard about "that kid from the Knicks that can score despite some awkward play."

Jeremy Lin has put together two good games. Please note that I at no point placed the words fantastic, amazing or ridiculous in there. I even carefully opted for the much less brash good, over great. 

This is usually the part where Knicks fans will have to take off their hoodies because of the heat emanating from the skulls. Let me state that I like Jeremy Lin. The dude can straight up ball. 

The hype and hoopla that has sprung from Madison Square Garden is what has been amazing and ridiculous though. 

I will only go so far as to say that a player that has put together two games of 20-plus points and seven-plus assists in a row deserves respect and the starting job. 

What I will not do is bow down and consider him the next coming of Jerry West as some are willing to do. His nine turnovers in two games should be highlighted as well. 

But this is not to slay a player that is just getting his NBA feet wet. It would be unfair to kill him and say he will never amount to a thing in this league, because the sample size is so small. 

Equally, it's ridiculous to get our collective panties in a bunch because he has two good scoring games. 

But this is not Lin's fault, or head coach Mike D'Antoni's for overusing him. It's all of us fans that are too blame. 

We have been given amazing tools to discuss the games at hand, and we are blowing it. Rather, we are blowing it all up. 

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and everything in between have given us instant access to the top plays of the night. The usual sifting that is done has been extinguished by one overblown reaction spurring on another. 

Like dominoes, the hype topples over until we get an unproven Jeremy Lin as the biggest story of the week. I am all for underdogs and brilliant tales of up and coming players, but this is getting ridiculous. 

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