There’s something vicariously fun about Jeremy Lin, the Harvard graduate and NBA journeyman who found the right place and a little stardom with the New York Knicks the past few weeks. The scrappy point guard has been tearing the league apart by scoring, dishing out assists and hitting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer earlier this week to cap a comeback against the Toronto Raptors.
He’s what the NBA needed — a good story. The NBA is the most star-studded of leagues, and also the least interesting. There are hardly any upsets, hardly any good stories and the big boys always seem to win — until Lin came around and helped the Knicks to an unexpected winning streak.
Sure, the ESPN hype can be nauseating, and you can probably hear Skip Bayless yelling right now, even without your television on. But Lin is the story the sports world needed. With drafts, club ball, AAU and camps, athletics has been broken down to a science — a science that doesn’t have room for deviation. It’s almost impossible to find that diamond in the rough or that unexpected talent. Those stories don’t seem to emerge as much as they used to.
Which is what makes Lin so fun. He’s ripping up the league, and having a good time at it, all while sleeping on his brother’s couch.
It’s a story kids can dream about at night. Here’s hoping Lin’s dream keeps going a while longer.
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