Knicks Away from Linsanity
In recent weeks, Asians around the country have been filled with the inspiration that it is possible to make it in sports. This was brought on by New York Knicks’ point guard Jeremy Lin. Before making it big with the Knicks, Lin played college basketball at Harvard University. After being undrafted, the Golden State Warriors picked him up and later traded him to the Houston Rockets. He was given little to no playing time and his potential began to dwindle as he was picked up by the New York Knicks. Sophomore Bailey Liao, who is a basketball player himself says, “He’s a guy who came from nowhere that no one expected to be good.” Lin never gave up, after being traded twice, he kept his faith and has made a name for himself here in New York.
Along with any quick rise to fame there are issues. Due to the “Lin”sanity, Ben and Jerry’s created the ice cream flavor “Taste the Linsanity” and were faced with a controversy due to its ingredients. The company decided to change the fortune cookies in the recipe to waffle cones and said, “We are proud and honored to have Jeremy Lin hail from one of our fine, local universities and we are huge sports fans,” Ben & Jerry’s said in the news release. Our intention was to create a flavor to honor Jeremy Lin’s accomplishments and his meteoric rise in the NBA, and recognize that he was a local Harvard graduate. We try (to) demonstrate our commitment as a Boston-based, valued-led business and if we failed in this instance we offer our sincere apologies.”
It’s no secret that Jeremy Lin is the recent toast of New York, but with many positives, come negatives. Since the reinsertion of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire into the lineup, the Knicks crawled through a grueling six game losing streak. As appalling as it is, it made Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni question his place with the organization, so much so that on the morning of March 14, 2012, he resigned from the Knicks organization. The initial reaction to the news from writers and fans was, how Jeremy Lin was going to play basketball without his former coach. It was obvious that he found an offensive system under D’Antoni that suited his strengths. That same night, the Knicks played the Trail Blazers. Interim coach Mike Woodsen was certainly being watched closely by the Knicks front office to see if he would be a possible fit as their next head coach. By the end of the game, the Knicks soared to a 121- 79 victory as Lin had 6pts and 6 assists, but don’t let this one game be a sign of what is to come for Jeremy Lin this season, he still has time to become comfortable in Mike Woodson’s system. On behalf of the Knicks fans around the world, we all must keep “Linsanity” close, through good times and bad.
