Lin went to Harvard until 2010, when he applied for the NBA draft. The point guard did well in his summer league games, yet he went undrafted. He signed with the Golden State Warriors summer league team that same summer, yet he got cut. Lin went on to sign with the Houston Rockets summer league team hoping for better luck than he had in Golden State. But Houston cut him too. After Houston, Lin got picked up by the New York Knicks; his third team in two years. He came off the bench against the Warriors, yet he got sent back down to the D-League. His final stint in the D-League was short lived. Lin got recalled on January 23rd and started his first game against the New Jersey Nets on February 4th.
Injuries reduced the Knicks to Tyson Chandler and four other guys wearing orange and white. The team's disappointment had knocked the wind out of the fanbase. New York's tabloids called for Mike D'antoni's head to be delivered to Time Square and served on a sabrett cart for the fans to devour. Everything about the Knicks appeared to be going wrong.
And then Lin put up 25 points, five rebounds, and seven assists against the Nets in a win.
In Lin's second start, Lin put up 28 points, two rebounds and eight assists in a win against the Utah Jazz.
The next night Lin recorded his first career double double (23 points 10 assists) against the Washington Wizards.
And in a matchup against Kobe Bryant and the vaunted Los Angeles Lakers, Lin put up 38 points, four rebounds, and seven assists.
After just four games, Lin has become the temporary king of a pretty rough sports town. The Knicks have put together a four game winning streak with Chandler, Lin, and three other guys wearing orange and white jerseys. New York's recent run has poll vaulted them into eighth place in the conference ahead of the injury plagued Milwaukee Bucks. Lin's story has become something of an urban legend in the New York media; getting told and retold, each time the storyteller getting just as captivated as the listener. Jeremy Lin's story is far from over, and we don't know if future chapters will be as captivating as this one.
Still, what happens when Lin misses game winning shots? Or his production drops when Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire come back from injury? Or he gets hurt frequently? Or he announces that he is taking his talents to another team in an hour long television special? Or if he is secretly involved in some kind of illegal underground activity?; such as betting on games he plays in? If two of those things happen at the same time, Lin's success will be forgotten. The city's new found love for him will turn to spite. And the very same architects that built him up will tear him down just as quickly.
Such is the Jekyll and Hyde sports world we live in.
One minute a nice story like Jeremy Lin may blossom into a beautiful flower. The next, the same hand that watched that flower grow could crush it because a few petals fell off. It happened before to countless athletes and will continue to happen long after this generation is gone. It's engraved somewhere within our society to build up the figures that entertain us, pester them until we discover their faults, and hatefully rip them from the very pedestal that was built for them. Just like the others, Lin's success is primarily defined by the fans who watch him. Good play will shoot him past the moon and up to the stars. A dip in production can quickly turn into a bottomless pit of ridicule and torment. Or in some cases, Lin could simply get shot at the stars and vanish into the vacuum of space.
There are two exceptions to this norm. The rare athlete who never does anything wrong and ultimately rises to immortality and the humpty dumpties. The immortals of the game are the ones that fathers tell their sons about. The athletes who were unconquerable. A group of select few that get awards named after them and their own t.v. specials on anniversaries of their historic events. The humpty dumpties are the stars who rise to the top, fall off the wall, and get put back together again by all the kings horses and all the king's men; the cracks are always there, but they are masked extremely well by their play.
There is no guarantee regarding Lin's future. One thing for certain is that Lin will shed the 'flavor of the month' status and gets categorized. When this will happen we do not yet know; yet the certainty is irrefutable. For now, we can enjoy Jeremy Lin as the nice story that he is and worry about a legacy later.
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