This Is Sport! — LINdispensable and LINdescribable

How do you become an instant celebrity, or as the Americans say, an overnight sensation? Here is an example that is almost too good to be true, but the wonderful world of sport has always been like that. It gives us all that warm feeling inside, doesn’t it?

In recent days, it became practically impossible to move in sporting circles without hearing the name — Jeremy Lin. The United States just cannot get enough of him; and the entire basketball world, which accounts for a large portion of the sporting population, wasted no time before joining in in the praise. It has become a real phenomenon.

Lin, 23, was born in California to Taiwanese parents. At six feet three inches and 200 pounds, he would be considered small in the world of giants that is the NBA. A beautiful mind as well; Lin is an economics graduate from Harvard University, where he distinguished himself on the courts.

In 2010, no club set their sights on him at the amateur NBA draft. As a free agent, the Dallas Mavericks offered him a summer trial but released him after. Then, Lin found himself with the Golden State Warriors, his hometown team, but for the most part he only warmed the bench, participating in only 29 games during the 2010-2011 season. After being released by the Warriors last December, Lin was picked up by the New York Knicks. The Knicks, despite their popularity in the city that never sleeps, are still the butt of many unflattering jokes, relating to their chronic failure to win the championship since 1973. In NY, Lin, a religious man, who says that his faith was the reason he never considered quitting despite numerous setbacks, is frequently compared to Tim Tebow, the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

Until… Feb. 4, as injuries built up in his team, coach D’Antoni was forced to improvise: He entrusted Lin with the starting position as point guard against the the New Jersey Nets. The young man answered the call by racking up 25 points in their 99-92 victory. Then, Feb. 6, he scores 28 points; Fe. 8, 23 points; Feb. 10, 38 points; and Feb. 11, 20 points.

In Toronto last Tuesday night, the Knicks trailed 87-84 with just over a minute to play. Lin first closed the gap, and then with a three-point shot with half a second remaining in normal time, helped the Knicks to their 6th straight win — um, Lin-extremis? Final score 90-87, 27 points for Lin, and the prodigy continues to improve; good news for the Knicks, who started the season with a win-loss record of 8-15.

A phenomenon, would we say? Within days, Jeremy Lin’s followers increased from 20,000 to over 300,000 on Twitter. His number 17 jersey is now the best selling among NBA players. The Knicks’ online store has reported a sales increase of around 3,000 percent. Fans are even scrambling to create (often questionable) puns with his name; LINcredible, LINpossible, LINderella, LINtelligence, LINstantaneous. The frenzy it creates is LINsanity. All this for a guy, who after arriving in the Big Apple, was sleeping on the sofa in his brother’s apartment, he confided recently.

The NBA hopes that this story can help rescue some confidence in the association. From the public relations perspective and relationship with the fans, the association still has much to do after a lock-out that lasted several months which postponed the start of the regular season until Christmas forcing a shortening of the schedule to a mere 66 games. What’s more, the NBA is seeking to penetrate to the Asian market.

This is a story which has reached the highest levels. On Thursday last, the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, spoke a little off-topic and emphasized that President Obama, an avid basketball fan, has been closely following the exploits of Lin and was “very impressed.”

Has this new sensation really come out of nowhere, as everyone says? On Monday, scathing satirist Stephen Colbert, host of the hilarious Colbert Report on Comedy Central, said he adhered to the LINsanity and proposed linoleum in the player’s image, Colbert also joked that “he came out of nowhere, which is my nickname for Harvard.”

It only remains to be seen if this fairytale will last. But meanwhile, as the LINspired poet said: Wow.