Athanasios Armenis

Journal Staff

Carmelo Anthony. Amare Stoudemire. Jeremy Lin? When the New York Knicks entered the 2011-2012 shortened NBA season, the two point guards on their opening day roster were Tony Douglas and Iman Shumpert. Who? Exactly.
The Harvard product has taken the NBA by storm and he’s had some luck. After injuries to all-star guard Anthony and power forward Stoudemire, the Knicks had become so depleted that they began to search for talent in the NBA Developmental League.
They needed to stop the bleeding, and before “Linsanity” mysteriously rose out of the mist of the D-League, the Knicks had lost 11 of their previous 13 games and were sitting outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Lin’s first game couldn’t have been scripted any better as the Taiwanese sensation capped off 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds coming off the bench in a 99-94 win against the Nets. Since then, Lin has sparked an improbable Knicks run with remarkable performances against Devon Harris and the Utah Jazz, John Wall and the Wizards but most impressively against five-time NBA Champion and two-time Finals MVP, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Lin has stepped in and fit quite nicely into his leadership role as his 24.6 PPG and 9.2 APG in a mere 10 games have captivated the entire sports world.
Fifteen-time NBA all-star, Shaquille O’Neal’s recent tweet after the buzzer beating three-pointer Lin drilled against the Raptors, shows how the young guard has created quite the buzz throughout the association.
“Linderrella story of the year…Jeremy Lin has lingle handedly played lensational lincredible. I’m linpressed all he does is Lin Lin Lin gd job [sic].”
The Knicks, and especially Head Coach Mike D’Antoni, have welcomed Lin with open arms as rumors swirled of D’Antoni losing his head coachposition prior to Lin’s arrival. Since moving Lin to the starting lineup, D’Antoni has seen incredible performances out of the star, but most importantly the Knicks are back to their winning ways.
Lin’s emergence has led New York to an 8-2 record in the past 10 games. Most interestingly his amazing play has created quite the stir surrounding Knicks fans as they await the expected return of forward Carmelo Anthony who will be back in the starting lineup on Monday night.
Will Anthony’s all-star stature demand the offense to flow more through him? Or will Lin be able to have the ball in his hands during critical situations in the game?
Regardless of how rocky the start of the season was for New York, the Knicks are back and ready to compete. They will be a tough out for any team in the playoffs and with the lockout having a major effect on scheduling this season, having Lin should dramatically help on the more frequent back-to-back matchups.
The big apple hasn’t seen a title in nearly 40 years and with Lin playing lights out, the presence of the two all-stars, Stoudemire and Anthony, along with a true center in Tyson Chandler, the sky’s the limit for these Knickerbockers.