Jeremy Lin didn’t exactly have an amicable parting of ways with the Knicks in 2012. He was just five months removed from a run of games that plucked him from obscurity and catapulted him to the limelight, and yet his place with the orange and silver proved far from secure. Resident superstar Carmelo Anthony considered him a threat (and an undeserving one, to boot), and so he viewed his future to be better elsewhere. And he was proven right; for all the front office’s pronouncements that any contract offered to him would be matched, he was allowed to walk away and head to the Rockets as a free agent. True to form, though, owner James Dolan didn’t forget the perceived slight; at no instance in the next seven years was he given any acknowledgment as a visitor at the Madison Square Garden.
Considering the inaction through the years, Linsanity might as well never have happened. But it did, and, last week, the Knicks themselves shockingly underscored how much they appreciated that particular slice of their storied past. Indeed, they pulled out all the stops to highlight the spate of games that turned an erstwhile on-the-bubble scrub into a worldwide phenomenon. The franchise even laid out the red carpet for Lin, involving him in MSG Networks’ week-long retrospective that replayed the fateful set-tos marking his unexpected ascent.
To argue that Lin was a product of circumstance would be to understate the obvious. Prior to then head coach Mike D’Antoni’s decision to tap him in a match against the Nets in early February, he was in danger of being cut; he had played a mere 55 minutes all told since being signed to a non-guaranteed deal at the end of 2011. In all likelihood, he would have stayed glued to the bench until the end of his contract in six days had the Knicks not lost 11 of their last 13 outings AND remained depleted by injuries in the backcourt. Instead, he seemed to represent a desperate move for change — any change — that wound up paying off in spades; he logged 25, five, and seven in 36 minutes of play to lead them to victory. Starting at the point thereafter, he would repay the trust given him with six more consecutive wins and seven of eight contests overall.
And then something happened: Reality happened. Even as defenses became more attuned to Lin’s on-court predilections, Anthony returned to action, and along with it the Knicks’ isolation sets. The losses piled up, leading to D’Antoni’s resignation in the middle of March. By the end of the month, the intrepid overachiever would go under the knife to repair a torn meniscus. His season was over. Linsanity was over. And, as things turned out, his time with the Knicks was over. After that, he managed to suit up for six other National Basketball Association franchises, including a forgettable stint with the champion Raptors last season.
These days, Lin can be found in the Chinese Basketball Association, plying his trade for the Beijing Ducks. He’s a certified marquee name in the league, having been its top vote getter in the recent All-Star Game and enjoying celebrity status topped only by a handful in the most populous country in the world. He’s in a foreign land waiting for the season to restart, which, no doubt, made him feel even more grateful for the Knicks’ unprompted hat tip. Once upon a time, he wowed all and sundry with lightning-in-a-bottle heroics that continue to be awe-inspiring to this day. Anything is possible, he showed then and now, and how.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
