This strike shortened year was in danger of becoming a total loss. Just a week and half ago they had fallen to 8-15, Carmello Anthony was hurt, Stoudemire was mourning his brother. There seemed to be no one to save the Knicks and they were in danger of falling too far out in this lockout shortened season-only 66 total games.
As for Jeremy Lin, he was being looked at by the team as a possible waiver so as not to have to pay him. He was that close to being unceremoniously waived. Then he had the game against the Nets and there has been no looking back.
During his run the Knicks have won 6 straight in no game has he scored under 20 points. Last night he did it again, scoring 27 points, including a three point shot at the buzzer to complete a 4th quarter comeback against Toronto last night after trailing all game and as much as 12 (78-66) in the 4th quarter.
Evidently he's the real deal. In a way you wonder why this is such a big story. I mean certainly his numbers are phenomenal, both points scored-he has the most points scored in his first 5 starts since the NBA-ABA merger. Think about that-more than even Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.
The fact that he's Asian certainly adds to his sex appeal-he is the first Chinese NBA star. But most of all he wasn't supposed to be this good. Most players that excel in the NBA are known about-everybody knows even before they excel they will be excellent.
Lin has come out of nowhere. His rise is infectious. Even the Raptors seemed to have caught Lin-sanity by the end of yesterday's game. The Laker's locker room is reported to have erupted after seeing his rally yesterday. Something about him makes you root for the guy-he's impossible to dislike.
His team loves him. Last night Stoudemire came back and says Lin reminds him of Steve Nash-no higher compliment. Many are comparing him to Tim Tebow. I like how he answered it-he said he like Tebow but he see's his story as different.
Let's face it, Tebow is more hype than anything not that he has put up incredible numbers on the field-until now, Tim Tebow has not done that.
As a Knicks fan Christmas may just have come in February. I had been ignoring basketball and was wholly focused on the Giants. With the Super Bowl won I had started watching the Knicks and my first thought was that the Knicks are the only weak link-the Giants won the Super Bowl, the Rangers have the best record in the NHL, the Yankees are the Yankees, the Knicks were supposed to be good, really good this year. They had Stoudemire, Carmello, and now Chandler.
It didn't happen. Now out of the blew we may have the one piece we were still missing-a real point guard to lead the team. Lin does it all, he scores, but he dishes out the assists too, he makes the whole team better. When asked what happens when Melo comes back, D'Antoni admitted that, "I just don't know right now."
You'd like to think there guys can complement each other and Stoudemire and Chandler too. We'll see. It's a nice problem to have in a way-too many impact players. The Knicks haven't had that in a long time.
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