Saturday, February 11, 2012

Who is Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks and where did he come from?



The new NBA sensation that has taken basketball by storm and few know of  him!
Jeremy Shu-How Lin an asian american born in Los Angeles,California grew up in Palo Alto, California where he honed his basic ball skills at the local YMCA taught by his father Joseph Gie-Ming.
His high school years is where the talents started to shine. He captained his senior season at Palo Alto High School winning the Division II state title going 32-1. He was named to the All State team and Northern California Division II Player of the Year averaging 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 6.2 rebounds and 5.0 steals his senior season.

Lin wanted to take it to the next level, but the Ivy league is where he wanted to play. Brown and Harvard was the only two schools that guaranteed him a spot on the basketball team so he chose Harvard. He did graduate with a degree in economics with a 3.1 GPA showing he has the brains to take care of himself off the court.
On the court Harvard made the right choice with Lin. He finished at Harvard with a stat line of 1483 points, 487 rebounds, 406 assists, 225 steals earning accolades and awards stemming from midseason candidate for the John Wooden Award and one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award.


Lin's talents did not show enough as an Ivy leaguer to the NBA scouts on the 2010 NBA draft day, so he went undrafted.
He did get offers after the draft from the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers and another undisclosed team to play for them. Lin decided to stay home and signed a two year deal on July 21st, 2010 with his favorite team growing up the Golden State Warriors. The time with the Warriors was short with the emergence of Stephon Curry and Monta Ellis in the backcourt left little playing time.
Lin played in 29 games with the big club 2.6 points, 1.2 rebounds,1.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game.


The Warriors used the D-League to help develop and cultivate the talents of Lin by sending him to the Reno Bighorns three times throughout the year for seasoning. He averaged 18 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists with Reno and got the playing time needed to showcase talent and work on the weaknesses.


The Lockout! The time away could have complicated things for Lin and where he ultimately landed. On the first day of training camp the Warriors waived Lin and he bounced around until he landed in the New York Knicks hands off waivers from the Houston Rockets
Before making his name in a Knickerbocker uniform he had to earn it. He was also blocked in New York by Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby so he had a three day hiatus to the Erie BayHawks and in his first game he completed a triple double against the Maine Red Claws and earned his way back up!


Now back in the Big Apple and playing for the Knicks we find ourselves a player that walked on at Harvard, went undrafted, worn two D-League uniforms, cut by two NBA teams and now plays in the Madison Square Garden for the Knicks on the big stage. In 13 games he has only averaged 16.1 minutes a game but still lights up the fans. The stats show he can play in the NBA 11.2 points, 1.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists and .8 steals a game.


The Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant found this out on February 10th when a sell out crowd watched Lin score 38 points leading the Knicks over the Lakers 92-85 in Madison Square Garden.


Where will this "Lin-sanity" end?

Take some time clicking on team and player links for more exciting tidbits!

Are you looking for sports memorabilia of players like these check out my ebay page!

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