Jeremy Lin has taken the sporting world by storm. Just when you think he can’t top himself, he does. He consistently puts forth unexpectedly amazing performances, and has a knack for the big-time play late in games. Hollywood couldn’t write a script like this.
Sound familiar? Not so long ago, this was Tim Tebow. But are they really that similar, as many have suggested? The short answer is no.
Tim Tebow was a first-round draft pick from an elite college program. Jeremy Lin wasn’t even considered for a college scholarship. Undaunted, he went to Harvard, as if it were his backup school or something. After graduating from Harvard, he went undrafted before bouncing around from team to team, before the New York Knicks finally snatched him up. Call Tebow an underdog all you want, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Lin.
Regardless of how he got to where he is now, Lin is here and making a statement. What that statement is has yet to be determined — who knows if Lin really is here to stay — but it’s fun to be a part of the process.
Everything has seemingly come together at the right time for Lin; it only makes sense this story would unfold in the Big Apple. And it’s all happening at just the right time for the NBA.
Tim Tebow was a big deal, and for good reason, but he added intrigue to a league that gets 135 million American viewers for its championship game. With the NBA’s relevance in the U.S. comparable to that of hockey’s, the league was desperate for a big story, and Lin handed it to them on a silver platter. He’s turned the NBA into a worldwide news story, and he himself has become a global phenomenon. People that generally care nothing for the sport are flipping over to whatever channel he’s playing on.
“Not often I’m switching off hockey for hoops but…Lin. Wow,” tweeted TSN’s NHL specialist James Duthie.
The staying power of the hype is tied directly to that of Lin: as he goes, so goes the story. But it’s more than that, really. As he goes, so go the TV ratings, jersey sales and website hits. Not in a long time has one (completely unexpected) player become so (in)valuable to the association.
When Lin-sanity finally subsides, which it inevitably will — whether he becomes a mainstay or fizzles out — the NBA will have had one of the most memorable stories of the past few years linked to their game and their league. That can only prove beneficial to a league that has been struggling to grab people’s attention.
Lin went from being an undrafted Asian-American guard out of Harvard, to claimed off waivers by the Knicks in December, to being demoted to and recalled from the D-league, pressed into duty to and sleeping on his brother’s couch, to one of the biggest stories in the world, all within the span of a week.
All that’s left for him to do is give a big public “you’re welcome” to the rest of the NBA.
