Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow Camparison: Why Linsanity and Tebowmania Differ Greatly
Linsanity is taking over the nation. In a single week, the unknown Harvard grad living on his brother’s couch and on the verge of being cut by the New York Knicks, has become a cultural icon.
Lin’s appeal far supersedes basketball. Politicians, lawyers, doctors and housewives alike have been swept up by the story of Jeremy Lin.
Lin’s story is a great one. A walk-on at Harvard after no school offered him a scholarship. A player who produced at both the high school and collegiate level, but for whatever reason never received the opportunity in the NBA he now evidently deserved.
Lin’s Asian American heritage has been a lightning rod for discussion. Some have debated that if Lin were African American he would have sooner received an opportunity in the NBA, but was overlooked due to the league's scarcity of Asian America players.
The excitement and widespread appeal accompanied by Lin’s rise has been compared by many to what happened with Tim Tebow during the NFL season.
The two do share a few similarities that are undeniable. Both Lin and Tebow were forced to fight through adversity, Lin after being undrafted and cut from the Warriors, and the questions Tebow faced as to whether or not he could play quarterback at the NFL level.
Both players are also passionate believers in Christianity and wear their religious values on their sleeves.
However, there is one major difference that separates the two stars.
With Tim Tebow, there was debate as to whether or not he was the reason for the Broncos success. Many believed the Broncos defense carried the team to victory and they used Tebow’s abysmal statistics to make their point. A lot of people still don’t think Tebow is good enough to be a starting NFL quarterback.
There is no doubt with Jeremy Lin: the man can ball.
Lin scored 136 points in his first five NBA starts. Since the 1976-77 NBA merger, that is the most points ever by a player in their first five starts.
This would be the equivalent of Tim Tebow throwing for the most passing yards by any NFL quarterback in their first five starts.
In his last five games, Lin is averaging 23.6 points per game and 9.8 assists per game. If you put this in context, Steve Nash leads the NBA in assists per game with 10.7 and Rajon Rondo is second averaging 9.5. If he played enough games to be eligible, Lin’s 23.6 points per game would be fifth best in the entire league and the most of any point guard.
Tim Tebow was the NFL’s 33rd ranked quarterback in passing yards per game, averaging just about 124 yards per contest. He was 27th in passer rating, behind players like Colt Mccoy, Mark Sanchez and Tarvaris Jackson. Finally, out of all qualifying quarterbacks, Tebow ranked dead last in completion percentage, as he completed only 46.5 percent of his passes.
If you want to compare Jeremy Lin to a current NFL player, compare him to Tony Romo or Arian Foster—undrafted players who put up big numbers with no one questioning their ability to produce at the professional level.
Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow do have a few things in common. The biggest difference, however, is that there is no questioning Lin’s ability, while there are still many questions about Tebow’s quarterbacking skills.
