J-Speaks: Knicks Rise Behind A Lintastic Performer

Two weekends ago, the New York Knicks looked or played anything like a team that had championship aspirations this 2011-12 NBA campaign. Things did not get any better when the team’s two linchpins Carmelo Anthony (groin) and Amar’e Stoudemire (death in family) were lost to the team. They were able to get back on the right track two Saturdays ago against their Division and metropolitan rivals behind a second-year player from the Ivy League.

Undrafted second-year guard Jeremy Lin has been the major reason why the New York Knicks (13-15) have come back from the depths of despair this season. In the team’s five straight victories, he has averaged 26.8 ppg, eight assists on 52 percent from the floor.

He began this five-game run of what has been called “Linsanity” with 25 points and seven assists and five boards off the bench in the Knicks 99-92 victory versus the Metropolitan rival New Jersey Nets. He more than held his own against Nets lead guard Deron Williams who had 21 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.

Two nights later, in his first start of this season, Lin rose to the occasion with a then career best 28 points to go along with eight assists in the team’s 99-88 win versus the Utah Jazz. Lin scored 13 of those 28 points in the fourth quarter. He completely outplayed Jazz starting guard Devin Harris who had just nine points and four assists.

Last Wednesday, the Knicks kept the momentum going in Washington, D.C. as they rang up another victory at the Wizards 107-93. Lin was true to form again with 23 points and 10 assists. He played former No. 1 overall pick John Wall to a standstill as he had 29 points and six assists.

His greatest performance of this stretch came on national television last Friday as he lit up Madison Square Garden with a career-high of 38 points, seven assists on 13 for 23 from the field and 10 for 13 from the free throw line in the 92-85 victory over the Los Angles Lakers.

One day prior to the contest, Lakers’ all-star guard Kobe Bryant, who lead team with 34 points while also grabbing 10 boards, said that he did not pay much attention to the latest “Miracle on 34^th Street.”

He certainly got his attention as well as backcourt mate Derek Fisher who nearly got outscored by Lin by himself.

After the game, the Knicks newest sensation told ESPN’s Lisa Salters, “This is my dream and I’m just thankful to God. God is faithful and he put us on this unbelievable journey and were trying to enjoy everything right now.”

Lin followed up his out of this world performance with 20 points, six boards and eight assists in the Knicks 100-98 victory at the Minnesota Timberwolves. He did show some effects of playing a lot of minutes as he went just 1 for 13 from the field in the second half and went overall shot just 8 for 24 for the game. He still managed to play rookie sensation guard Ricky Rubio to a draw who scored 12 points and dished out eight assists.

To truly understand the kind of phenomenon Lin has become, just a year ago as a rookie he played in just 29 games as an aforementioned undrafted rookie with the Golden State Warriors where he averaged just 2.6 ppg. On Dec. 9, 2011 the Warriors waived Lin. Three days later he was picked up by the Houston Rockets. On Christmas Eve and before the start of this season, the Rockets waived Lin. Three days later, the Knicks picked him up to be the team’s third string point guard. His first action as a Knick came at the Warriors where he was well received.

Back on Jan. 17 Lin was assigned to the Erie BayHawks of the National Basketball Association’s Developmental League. In his first action on Jan. 20 he recorded a triple-double with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists in the BayHawks 122-113 victory over the Maine Red Claws. Lin was recalled back to the Knicks three days later.

Most players in the position would have thrown in the towel and moved on, especially someone who had his college degree and had major connection to the business world considering that he graduated from Harvard. Lin though decided to stick with it and when his number was called he answered the bell.

This is something that Lin has done for all his life. Growing up in California, the 6’3’’ Lin’s father, who is 5’7’’ along with his mother, told him as a kid to do his homework after dinner and if he did that he would take him to the YMCA.

“I just love basketball ever since I was young,” Lin told reporters last week.

“That’s all I really wanted to do. I just want to play as hard as I can.”

His hard work has paid of not just for himself, but for the team as well. Lin’s 109 total points in the first four starts of his young career is a new NBA record. The previous record holder is former NBA guard Allen Iverson who scored 101 points in his first four starts. Three other notables who had major impacts in the scoring department in their first four starts are Shaquille O’Neal (100 points), Michael Jordan (99 points) and Bill Ray Bates (99 points).

Lin’s performance has also gotten the respect of head coach Mike D’Antoni who seemed to finally found that lead guard that had been missing for most of this season.

“What he is doing is amazing,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you.”

It has also garnered the attention of the Chinese community particularly in New York’s Chinatown.

“It maybe the typical story of a minority American. You got to be that much better than everyone else like Jackie Robinson,” Vice Chair of APEX Eddie Shiomi said.

“He had to be perfect in order to even get a shot.”

Lin’s greatness on the court has more than anything shown that when someone who is from a conference that typically is not seen as one where you can find the cream of the crop in terms of dynamic basketball players.

He has also become just the fourth player from Harvard to play in the NBA. The other three are Saul Mariaschin who played for the Boston Celtics (1947-48); Ed Smith who was the No. 6 pick of the 1951 Draft by the New York Knicks playing just one season (1953-54) averaging 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11 games; Wyndol Gray who played on the first Boston Celtics team in 1946-47 when the NBA was called the Basketball Association of America. The Akron, OH product averaged 6.4 ppg in 55 games played for coach Honey Russell. The next season, Gray was traded to the St. Louis Bombers. After just 11 games he was traded again to the Providence Steamrollers where he played just one game.

On last Sunday’s edition of NBATV’s “Gametime” they compiled a Top 10 list of NBA players from Ivy League schools.

At No. 10 was Penn University guard Matt Maloney, who played for seven seasons (1996-2003) with the Rockets, Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks. His most notable season was his rookie year where he was the starting point guard along side Hall of Famers Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. Lin was in the following position at No. 9.

At No. 8 was John Hummer who was the No. 15 pick in the 1970 NBA Draft by the Buffalo Braves out of Princeton. He played for six seasons for the Braves, Chicago Bulls and Seattle Supersonics. He averaged 6.3 ppg and 5.9 rpg. He currently is a venture capitalist for a firm called Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a firm that he and Ann Winblad founded in 1989 that focuses on software companies.

Coming in at No. 7 was former Yale player Chris Dudley. He was drafted in the then fourth round by the Cleveland Cavaliers. He played 16 seasons for the Cavs, Nets, Portland Trail Blazers (twice), Knicks and Phoenix Suns averaging 3.9 ppg, 6.2 rpg and 1.2 bpg.

Back in 1998, Dudley began the Chris Dudley Foundation, which is an Oregon based group that is focused on improving the lives of diabetic children.

In 2006, Dudley became vice president of M Financial Wealth Management and October 2008, he has been a wealth management partner with Filigree Advisors.

Two years ago, Dudley tried his hand at politics running for a Congressional seat in the House of Representatives. Though he ran a close race, the Lake Oswego resident lost to former Gov. John Kitzhaber (D-OR) 49 percent to 48 percent.

At the No. 6 spot was Armond Hill of Princeton. The ninth overall pick in the 1976 Draft by the Atlanta Hawks played eight seasons. The three other teams he played for were the Supersonics, the then San Diego Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks. He averaged 6.2 ppg and 4.7 apg. He is currently an assistant head coach on the Boston Celtics.

Brian Taylor was ranked at No. 5. The 23^rd overall pick in the 1972 draft began his career with the New York Nets in the ABA. After four seasons with the Nets, he played his last six seasons in the NBA with the then Kansas City Kings, Denver Nuggets and San Diego Clippers. He averaged 13.1 ppg. Overall he scored 7,000 points in the ABA/NBA.

In the No. 4 spot is Jim McMillan out of Columbia. The 13^th overall pick in the 1970 draft nine of his 11 years of professional basketball with the Lakers, Braves, Knicks and Trail Blazers. He was a member of the 1972 Los Angles Lakers championship team. He played the last two years of his career in Italy for Virtus Bologna.

At No. 3 is Rudolph “Rudy” Larusso. The 2^nd Round pick in the 1959 Draft out of Darmouth by the Minneapolis Lakers played for 10 years. He averaged 16.0 ppg and 10.2 rpg for the Lakers and San Francisco Warriors. He was a 5-time all-star selection. Larusso also appeared in a cameo role in the third episode of “Gilligan’s Island playing the role of ‘Agent Michaels.’ He passed away in 2004 from Parkinson’s disease.

Geoffrey Petrie is No. 2 on this list. The No. 8 overall selection in the 1970 draft by the Blazers played for the team for six years averaging 21.8 ppg and 4.6 apg. He was the 1971 Rookie of the Year as well as making the All-Rookie First Team. He played in two All-Star games in 1971 and 1974. After working for several seasons in the private sector, Petrie came back to the NBA in 1985 working for the Blazers as a commentator for their radio broadcast and several other positions before taking the role as senior vice president of operations.

After nine seasons in the front office, Petrie was hired by the Sacramento Kings as their president of basketball operations. He has won the NBA Executive of the Year twice in 1999 and 2001. For a stretch, the Sacramento Kings were a top notch team in the NBA making the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons. Their best season came in 2001-02 where they won a franchise record 61 games and captured the Western Conference Pacific Division. The team won in a five-year stretch 55, 61, 59, 55 and 50 games respectably. Two major parts in that season and the others in that stretch were current NBATV and TNT analyst Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, whose jersey were retired by the organization. While the team has fallen on tough times in recent years and the uncertainty about the team staying in Sacramento, they know that they have the right man in Petrie along with the Maloof brothers Joe and Gavin to get things back on track.

At No. 1 is former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ). The territorial selection by the Knicks in the 1965 Draft out of Princeton played for the team for 10 seasons averaging 12.4 ppg. The 1965 NCAA Player of the Year and Rhode Scholar of Oxford helped the Knicks win the championship in 1970 and 1973. He is one of nine Knicks to have their jersey numbers hanging in Madison Square Garden. At the time Bradley was the fourth Knick to have his jersey to be immortalized forever alongside Walt “Clyde” Frazier’s No. 10, Willis Reed’s No. 19 and Dave DeBusschere’s No. 22. Bradley received the highest honor for any athlete in 1982 when he was selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.   

After his playing career, Bradley entered politics in the summer of 1977 running for the United States Senate seat for the Democratic Party of New Jersey. He won that seat in the general election by garnering 56 percent of the vote from liberal Republican and four-term incumbent Clifford B. Case (R-NJ). Bradley held that Senate seat for 18 years and among some of the domestic legislation that he led or was associated with was reform of child support enforcement; lead-related children’s health problems; the Earned Income Tax Credit; campaign finance reform; a re-apportioning of California water rights; and federal budget reform to reduce the deficit, which included, in 1981, supporting Reagan's spending cuts but opposing his parallel tax cut package, one of only three senators to take that position.

Twelve years ago, Bradley ran for President of the U.S. in opposition to incumbent Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic Party’s nomination. He failed to win any of the first 20 primaries and caucuses withdrawing his campaign and supporting Gore.

The NBA has had its share of Ivy League players come in. Some were just a blip on the radar. Others etched their names in stone. Jeremy Lin to this point has in a short period of time established himself as a force to be reckoned with and has saved the Knicks season at least for now. How far he can take this and can he play with Anthony and Stoudemire. Answers to those questions start tonight versus the Toronto Raptors.

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of en.wikipedia.org; 2/10/12 6:30 p.m. edition of ABC’s “World News” with Diane Sawyer (substitute was David Muir); 2/10/12 8 p.m. contest of the Los Angles Lakers vs. New York Knicks on ESPN (commentators Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy; reporter Lisa Salters); 2/10/12 6:30 p.m. edition of “NBC Nightly News” with Lester Holt  2/11/12 2 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime” with Rick Kamla, Steve Smith and Ron Thompson; 2/11/12 6:30 p.m. edition of “CBS Evening News” with Elaine Quijano, report from Tony Guida; 2/12/12 6 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime” with Vince Cellini, Sam Mitchell and Ron Thompson; 2/12/12 edition of ESPN’s Sportscenter with Adnan Virk and Bram Weinstein.