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Monday, May 21, 2012

Tickel Your Fancy

Creating Lin-ear Polarization

By Hunter Tickel  |  Published: 02/19/12 7:14pm  |  Updated: 02/19/12 7:14pm  |  No comments


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For the past two weeks, Jeremy Lin has tread on unprecedented territory, chartered since the turn of the century.

He’s done something that LeBron James, Dwanye Wade, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant or even Shaquille O’Neal weren’t capable of: make the National Basketball Association relevant on a national and global scale.

Lin has polarized a league in desperate need of a renaissance following Michael “Air” Jordan’s greatness in the ‘90s. The ‘80s — before my time — I’m told was the greatest decade of hoops with Erving “Magic” Johnson and Larry “Legend” Bird going toe-to-toe, renewing a historic rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics.

One player and element both of those decades lacked, however, was the Linear equation. Lin has dropped 169 points through his first seven starts — a record since the 1976-77 NBA-ABA merger.

While Lin has been scoring in bunches, ESPN.com notes he has committed a record 45 turnovers during that stretch, but the only stat that holds water is his 6-1 record as a starter.

The stage that Lin is doing it on is absurd, considering the trials and errors he went through to even have this shot.

He didn’t receive a single basketball scholarship out of high school, before settling at Harvard; and according to ESPN.com, the assistant coach at Harvard told Lin’s high school coach that he was only a Division III-caliber player.

Despite the plaudits he garnered at the Ivy League school in nearly every statistical category, he went undrafted — which is not surprising, considering those who graduate from Harvard are probably more likely to become president than get drafted by the NBA.

In the past two years, he’s played for two Developmental League teams, had a brief stint in the Chinese Basketball Association and been cut by two NBA teams — nearly three.

The San Francisco Bay Area native was just days away from being waived by New York on Feb. 4. The Knicks contemplated releasing the point guard one week before his contract became guaranteed so that they could sign a new player.

Lin nixed this notion, however, showing aplomb in coming off the bench to total career-highs of 25 points, five boards and seven assists, setting the tone for him to start the next eight games through Sunday.

This year happens to be the Year of the Dragon, which is also the 6-foot-3-inch guard’s zodiac sign. The sign personifies power, wisdom and attention garnering.

With the Harvard alumnus pulling the strings in the nation’s most historic arena —Madison Square Garden — tickets have been selling like hot cakes. During troubling financial times, fans are going on spending sprees to catch a glimpse of Lin, with students forking up $200 and courtside seats going for $2,000, according to Fox Sports.

“Linsanity,” which began as a trending topic on Twitter, has become a nationwide phenomena, as ESPN and other mainstream news organizations compete to come up with witty headlines for each passing win.

Lin became an iconic sports figure overnight, which makes his “rags to riches” journey that much more remarkable.

Teammate Carmelo Anthony has referred to him as the team’s “Rudy,” but that doesn’t do Lin justice. Rudy was a practice team player, whose appearances totaled one down in his career for Notre Dame, while Lin is having sustained success in the Big Apple — the mecca of professional basketball.

Anyone comparing him to NFL quarterback Tim Tebow is seriously lacking in judgment of talent or sports in general, not to mention the fact that Tebow won the Heisman trophy in college.

There just isn’t anyone out there that can hold a candle to the Lin movement, but there are plenty out there that will liken themselves to him.

Notre Dame — also an underdog — notched its eighth-straight win Saturday, prompting head coach Mike Brey to say in his post-game presser, “Jeremey Lin and the Irish — believe it.”

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