President Obama's Reaction to Jeremy Lin Proves Linsanity Won't Die Down

Linsanity has official moved from a cute little fad to an era-defining note of culture. That lofty status is what happens when you captivate the leader of the free world.

That's right: President Obama has a hefty case of Lin fever. Despite being busy in preparation to keep his job while still trying to take care of the various things on his presidential to-do list, Obama felt strongly enough about the remarkable play of Jeremy Lin to let it be known that he is a definite fan.  

White House press secretary Jay Carney relayed this message from the president to the press, and it comes to us via Oliver Knox on Yahoo.

"

[Obama] is an avid sports fan, and a particularly avid basketball fan, and we were speaking about Jeremy Lin on Marine One as we flew to Andrews Air Force Base this morning. He is very impressed.

If anybody caught the highlights from last night, they were pretty breathtaking.  It's just a great story and the president was saying as much this morning,

"

As for those highlights, there was nothing "over the line extraordinary" from Lin for 47 minutes of basketball. Then, with New York furiously trying to come back, the point guard hit for the Knicks' last six, which included the following game-winner from distance with less than a second remaining. 

Lin just keeps pulling off the amazing. The Knicks are now 6-0 since handing the keys over to him, and he is averaging 26.8 points and 8.5 assists per game in that span. He can now add cold-blooded closer to a resume that has made him a legend in a shockingly short time. 

Basis of Linsanity

It has been a perfect storm of events to elevate Lin to such a breathtaking level of hype. 

First is that he is playing MVP-caliber basketball in media-rich New York.

Second is the fact that he has essentially saved that Knicks franchise. They had lost 11 of 13 before this six game run. 

Those two factors are enough to turn anyone into an NBA star, but this is much more than that. This is a president-sweeping phenomenon. And Obama is not the only supporter that points to the amazing level Linsanity has reached either.

He has his peers in the NBA marveling at his accomplishments. Dave McMenamin of ESPN relayed their reaction.  

These are not things that the first two factors alone could create. So lets go further into the eye of this perfect storm. 

Lin has met this fame, and remained completely humble and personable. Check out this interview moments after he drilled that game winner. 

He is quick to accept blame and give credit to his teammates. It is a remarkable endearing quality that a player everyone is hyping is reluctant to hype himself. 

But this isn't everything. What really pushes this over the top is the fact that Lin is an underdog of unprecedented proportions. 

Lin is the first American-born Chinese or Taiwanese player to play in the NBA, and the first graduate of Harvard to grace the association's hardwood since 1954. 

He came to the Knicks after having been cut by two teams. He was sleeping on his brother's couch when Linsanity hit, due to what had been his permanently transient nature.  

This is one of the all-time great American dream stories. That became an undeniable fact when President Obama gave his seal of approval.