To better understand and appreciate Jeremy Lin’s profound, out-of-nowhere contribution to the New York Knickerbockers, it helps if you’ve seen all or some of the team’s 51 games before the Lin-Sanity started.
Those 51 games cover the period after Knicks owner Jim Dolan forced the Feb. 22, 2011 trade for Carmelo Anthony against the wishes of his own GM and head coach.
Combining parts of two seasons, the Knicks compiled a record of 22-29 after Melo’s arrival and before Lin’s breakthrough game against Jersey a week ago. What Melo brought to New York about a year ago was exactly what Denver coach George Karl was anxious to get rid of. We’re talking about a max-contract starter who expects to get the ball on offense without working for it so he can hoist up low-percentage shots and then exert very little effort on the defensive end.
It’s no accident the Nuggets are 34-19 since Anthony was moved out of Denver .
So, cue up the difficult-to-believe Jeremy Lin story. It’s only five games now, but for the purpose of linking NBA success to team-oriented, true hustle basketball, the sample size is plenty big.
Knick coach Mike D’Antoni was believed to be on the brink of getting fired. The Knicks had lost 11 of 13. Lin had not left the bench in seven of those games and had seen nothing more than mop-up duty since signing here on the Tuesday after Christmas.
Lin was taking up space on the roster. It’s only because of another delay in the return of the injured Baron Davis that Lin was even around.
Go back to a week ago Saturday night. The lousy Nets were at the Garden after getting trounced the night before. New Jersey jumped out to a ten-point lead. Knick fans groaned at the dysfunctional lack of flow from their star-studded team. They only joy the crowd could muster was when they heckled and taunted Kris Humphries for his short-lived marriage to you-know-who.
Desperate to find a spark, D’Antoni opened the second quarter of that game with Lin at the point. A minute after he checked in, Lin drove inside and canned a short jumper. Then he made a steal and a layup. A couple minutes later, Lin delivered a beautiful pass to Jared Jeffries for an easy bucket. Lin crashed the boards and torpedoed up the middle for drives to the hoop. His effort and energy brought the team to life and gave D’Antoni and the team a badly-needed win.
Lin got the start two nights later and did more of the same. You know the story by now. It’s leading Sportscenter and it’s all over the back pages.
Lin is unafraid of contact. He takes charges. He fully rotates his body in mid-air after losing the dribble to gain advantage vs. the defender. He looks one way and passes another.
For the first time since Melo tainted the team with his aura of ball possession entitlement, other guys on the Knicks are cutting to the basket with regularity because they know Lin will get it to them. Lin’s strong ability to deliver the ball to open teammates is a fresh and powerful incentive to move. With Lin at the point, guys like Jeffries, Landry Fields, Steve Novak and Tyson Chandler are being rewarded for making a cut or setting a pick. They’re getting the ball in good spots. They’re scoring. They’re getting involved. They’re winning. They haven’t lost since Lin was scraped off the bench!
The opportunity to play this brand of basketball has come in part because Melo’s bad groin forced him to sit out all but two quarters of this Lin-Sanity. When Anthony returns sometime this week, it’ll likely cause a conflict. Lin’s success as both a scorer and playmaker on the offensive end is contingent on motion and even-handed distribution to the four teammates he shares the floor with. A plodding, me-first, shoot-first guy threatens to throw a wrench in the beautiful team game Lin has brought to the surface.
Time will tell whether Lin can maintain this level of performance over the balance of a schedule that’s extra grueling because of the lockout-induced compression of dates. The bigger mystery to me at this point is how these dazzling skills went unseen by D’Antoni in practice and the two NBA teams that cut Lin?
Or is this a case of Carmelo’s absence finally creating the necessary blank canvas for an artist-in-waiting?
Either way, the brushes Lin has taken out of his art supply box seem to have taken everybody by surprise. It’s very exciting.
Unfortunately, a lot of New Yorkers have been unable to enjoy Lin’s sudden turn in the spotlight. On January 1st, the Knick-owned TV channel that shows most of the games pulled its signal from the cable system that covers large parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The games I can’t see, I listen to on radio. From my perspective, Lin’s been just as good on the AM dial as he is on TV.
