Jeremy Lin and the Best Underdog Stories in NBA History

The story of Jeremy Lin's rise to NBA success has dominated the news as of late.

His underdog story is something they make movies about, but he's not the only one.

Throughout time there have been a few underdogs to work their way to success in the NBA ranks.

Here's a quick look at a few of those stories.

Jeremy Lin

By now, everyone certainly knows Lin's story.

He wasn't offered a scholarship and had to take his game to Harvard. He wasn't drafted and was cut by a pair of NBA teams before signing with the New York Knicks.

Had Baron Davis made his Knicks debut when he was expected to, Lin probably would have been cut or sent to the D-League.

But he's the story of a guy who just needed someone to give him an opportunity. Once the Knicks did, he took advantage of it.

Muggsy Bougues

In a tall man's game, a couple men on this list were considered underdogs because of their height.

Bogues is the smallest player at 5'3" to ever compete in the NBA, and despite that lack of size, he was able to put together an impressive 14-year NBA career.

Dennis Rodman

Rodman's story is a good one.

He had a troubled childhood and wasn't very good at sports in high school. After graduation, Rodman was working as a janitor at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He experienced a sudden growth spurt and decided to give basketball another shot.

Rodman attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, not exactly a basketball hot bed and survived an attempt at suicide in 1993, but despite all the problems in his personal life, Rodman made himself a Hall of Famer on the court.

Despite the attention-grabbing attitude that Rodman would develop later on, his path to the NBA surely was a great underdog story.

Juan Dixon

Both of Dixon's parents were heroin addicts and died of AIDS, but Dixon found a way to become a positive influence.

He won a national championship while at Maryland and put together a seven-year NBA career.

Earl Boykins

At 5'5", Boykins is the second-shortest player in NBA history.

Unlike Bogues though, Boykins went undrafted out of Eastern Michigan University.

He was able to initially forge an NBA career by signing a bunch of 10-day contracts then a few one-year deals, but when it was all said and done, Boykins managed to hang around the NBA for 12 seasons.

Caron Butler

Butler had an extremely rough childhood as he fell into drugs at an early age and was arrested 15 times already before the age of 15.

Things could have gone a different route for Butler, but he fell in love with basketball at a detention center when he was 16, and instead of falling back into drugs, has used basketball to make a difference in other people's lives.

Bruce Bowen

Bowen is another that grew up with a mother that was a drug-addict. His rough childhood had his mother even selling the family television to feed her habit.

But Bowen had basketball, but just like his childhood, his path to the NBA was a rough one.

After graduating from Cal State Fullerton, it took Bowen a little over four years before he could catch on with an NBA team after going undrafted in 1993.

He got his chance in 1997 with the Miami Heat, and by the time his career ended in 2009 with the San Antonio Spurs, Bowen forged out a reputation as one of the greatest defensive players the game has ever seen.