This is a high school sports column and Jeremy Lin is a NBA player, but frankly, his story is far too reaching to quit now. We must continue the momentum. We must, for at least one more day, pass on the Linsanity.
Jeremy Lin led Palo Alto High
to a state championship in 2006.
File photo by Dennis Lee
Following his 38-point explosion against Kobe and the Lakers Friday night on national TV, everyone must now admit they were wrong.
That would include all NBA personnel evaluators for not drafting him, the Warriors and Rockets for waiving him, all college scouts who didn't offer him a scholarship and of course, the media for not crying foul to all of the above.
That would include myself.
I didn't think this was remotely possible. I thought the 23-year-old from
Palo Alto (Calif.) High School would be at best a spark and energy guy - a great teammate - who would come off the bench his entire NBA career, a span no longer than five or six seasons tops.
It's been only a week - yes, seven days, 168 hours - but clearly he's a legitimate starting NBA point guard for as long as his good health takes him.
The only one I know who thought this feasible was his high school coach Peter Diepenbrock, who hasn't outwardly proclaimed "I told you so." But when pushed and prodded, he essentially has said, "OK, I kinda told you so."
I've talked to the personable and impassioned Palo Alto High teacher - he's not coaching now while raising a young family - more than once
since our story on Lin's prep days ran on Tuesday.
He's maintained that his prized pupil just needed the right setting, the right coach and system. But Diepenbrock also admitted that he might be too close. He and Lin have always been tight. Before Linsanity, they talked by phone almost daily.
"It's been frustrating (since Lin made it to the NBA) because it's sort of like having a child that you know so well - you see things in him that others don't see," Diepenbrock said Wednesday. "(Tommy) Amaker figured it out (at Harvard). Now (Knicks coach Mike) D'Antoni gets it. He appreciates now what Jeremy is all about."
The only thing Diepenbrock got wrong this week was this quote - "I'm not saying he's Steve Nash, but everywhere he's gone they've loved him."
As I watched Lin for the first time start-to-finish as a pro on Friday, the one guy I kept seeing in my head was indeed Nash. At halftime, Magic Johnson mentioned Lin in the same breath with the Phoenix point guard as well.
Perhaps that's because Lin, like Nash, is in full control of D'Antoni's system. From the way he drives, makes tough interior shots, shoots from the perimeter and most of all, makes decisions, Lin resembles Nash in every fashion.
Nash might be a hair quicker, a crisper passer, a better pure shooter. But Lin is taller and stronger and more vertical. He also appears to be a better defender. As far as court vision and feeling the game, Lin appears spot on with Nash. So is his humble personality and ability to make teammates better.
That said, Nash has done it all for 16 seasons in the NBA and won two MVP awards. Lin has been impressive for a week and won four NBA games.
Impressive, of course, is an understatement.
With Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony out, Lin needed to take over a big scoring void. More so than any point of his career - prep, college or certainly pro - he's done just that, averaging an astonishing 28.5 points per game.
His 38 Saturday was a season high for any Knicks player. Yes, more than Anthony or Stoudemire, which seems incomprehensible. Especially considering just last week, Lin was last man on the Knicks' bench, his NBA career hanging by a thread.
But given one final chance, Lin just didn't snatch it, he owned it, smashed it, obliterated it.
"The journey was very different," Lin told reporters after Friday's game. "Getting waived twice, going to the D-League four times, just fighting for a spot in any rotation, and being basically a 15th guy on a roster, that's tough at times.
"When I'm on the court, I try to play with all my emotion and all my heart. I don't really try to hold too much back. My friends laugh at me … but I just love the game. I love playing with this team and I love playing for this coach. It's just a lot of fun right now."
His coach and teammates are loving right back. So are New York fans, sports followers and just about anybody with a pulse, opinion or Twitter account.
"He's a good guy, it's all about the team," D'Antoni told reporters Friday. "His defense is good, his energy is good, his personality rubs off on everybody. ... It's becoming a love fest. It's getting a little sappy. When you're good people and you play the game the right way and you play hard, you start to feel something in your heart. When you do that, anything's possible."
Which is a notion that indeed stretches far beyond the NBA. It's a good landing point for the prep game, high school kids and, yes, this column.
We don't need to rehash any more of Lin's accomplishments next week, next season or next decade.
His career, in fact, could end tomorrow and all that has transpired this last week could fill a book.
I've been lucky enough to cover the lad since he was 16, and far beyond the Linsanity are 10 crystal clear, simple, yet powerful messages that his young life conveys:
1. Follow your dreams.
2. Be patient.
3. Study.
4. Share the ball.
5. Share your joy.
6. Give back.
7. Push forward.
8. Have fun.
9. Play and live with passion.
10. Don't ever give up.
