Jeremy Lin: Making Sense of the Lin Phenomenon

Linsanity. Lincredible.

The creative surnames for the Jeremy Lin phenomenon have been pouring in as effusively as his production, but putting such pizazz behind the young New York point guard hyperbolizes the man himself. Let’s take a moment to examine Jeremy.

Everyone feels the need to make sense of Jeremy Lin after only five games as a starter, albeit five thrilling, fascinating, must-watch starts featuring a come-from-behind victory against the Timberwolves and a duel against Kobe Bryant in Madison Square Garden, all of which was done without Amare Stoudamire or Carmelo Anthony on the court.

Mostly everyone has already formed an opinion on the former fringe benchwarmer from Harvard. If you haven’t written, tweeted, posted on your wall, called in to a sports talk radio show or talked about him with any casual basketball fan, you’re in a very small minority—even smaller than the one Lin represents.

I can’t tell you if Lin is “for real.” I’m not here to offer advanced per-game statistics or in-game scenarios that show Lin to be better or worse than we’re making him out to be.

I wouldn’t even know how to define what “for real” means—is he the answer at point guard for the Knicks? Can he keep up this meteoric rise for the rest of the season? Can he orchestrate the Knicks into a deep playoff run?

These are all legitimate questions which all stem from the question of the “realness” of Jeremy.

It doesn’t hurt that Jeremy is an Asian-American player, of which there are very few in the NBA. It also doesn’t hurt that Jeremy is playing point guard for one of the biggest markets in the world.

These factors make Jeremy into basketball’s version of Tim Tebow times 10. Even Knicks fans are divided as to how to evaluate Jeremy. While some are sipping on the Kool-Aid, others are all but chugging the stuff. 

However, even Knicks fans must concede that this version of the story comes with an expiration date. Can we expect him to keep up this pace? Eventually, Carmelo will come back and control the ball more, Amare will return with the offense running closer to the basket and Baron Davis will steal some minutes at the point position, and thus the dynamic of the team will inevitably change.

The Knicks will have to adjust throughout a frenetic second half of the season, hardly a cause for alarm considering the season we are witnessing. Only in this condensed season would a story such as Jeremy’s even exist, where every spot in the East—except for the top two, which will unquestionably be occupied by Miami and Chicago in some order—is far from secure.

Jeremy’s success says as much about this NBA season as anything else, and to confine his impact to the New York Knicks would be shortchanging the narrative that continues to write itself—adapt or die.

Darwin Meets Naismith

The most resilient, not the strongest, teams survive in this year’s NBA. Every week, a new injury to a key player seems to dampen the hopes of their fanbase and fantasy team owners alike.

However, in this season, it’s no excuse. Key players such as Ginobili and Rose go down for their respective teams, yet they find a way to compensate. Other teams, such as the Grizzlies with Marc Gasol and the Bucks with Andrew Bogut, haven’t been so lucky, but there’s little time to lick one’s wounds. You have to find a way.

I’m not ready to say that the Knicks have solved all their issues yet, but they are finally learning the adapt-or-die principle of the 2011-2012 NBA season, and such a revelation is manifested in the play of Jeremy.

The absurdity of Jeremy’s dream-like performances is almost unfathomable. However, the impact he’s had on his team and New York is very real. It is evident in the fan’s voices on call-in shows, as well as on their faces at home games. More than a belief, they want to believe so badly in Jeremy, and who wouldn’t?

In a season where stars are shelved by injuries or strategically to conserve their minutes for the playoffs, shining stars like Jeremy, albeit unexpected, are more than welcome. 

Despite the big markets of LA and NYC, as well as the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history, last Friday’s Knicks-Lakers game would have been unwatchable without Jeremy, and that pretty much sums up the Linsanity.

In a season where Darwin meets Naismith, Jeremy is the poster boy of the NBA—the lone Asian-American player under 6’8” playing in New York—unfathomable, unthinkable, yet absolutely real and necessary. 

So, there’s no “making sense” of Jeremy Lin’s play thus far. There will be plenty of time to scrutinize every play and every decision he makes once we have a much larger sample size.

Sometimes, there’s no need to make sense out of a good thing. You just sit back and enjoy the ride. That’s what fans used to do, and if nothing else, Jeremy reminds us that we can do that again.