Behind The Linsanity

With Mike Pesca in for Tom Ashbrook

Lin-mania sweeps the nation, and the world. Buzzer-beating shots are just part of the story.

Jeremy Lin, point guard without precedent.  He’s scored more in his first 5 games than any hall of famer-- Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal included. And scoring isn’t even his game, Lin’s an assist man.

There’s a very strong case that he’s the most surprising story in pro basketball history.  As for pro sports history, there was once this guy who played for the Washington Senators. But Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo. was a work of fiction!    

This hour, On Point: how did everyone in the NBA whiff on this season’s transcendent story?
-Mike Pesca

Phil Taylor, senior writer, Sports Illustrated. He’s been following Jeremy Lin since his high school days

Doc Scheppler, He is the girl’s basketball coach at Pinewood high school in Los Altos, CA. He spent four months this past summer working with Jerem Lin on his game.

Jay Caspian Kang, editor at Grantland, which is owned by ESPN,  and contributing writer to the New York times Magazine.

Frank Isola, the Knicks beatwriter for the New York Daily News.

Freakonomics "Would love to see some commentary on the Jeremy Lin phenomenon in the NBA. Is this not a classic Moneyball-style “undervalued player”? Indeed, one of the best parts of the whole feel-good story (and there are many) is how consistently teams and coaches at the college and NBA level overlooked him before his breakout week. Even the Knicks were ready to release him a few days before his first big game against the Nets. Was he overlooked because he didn’t “look the part”? Will this impact how scouts and coaches evaluate players? What is the current status of sabermetrics for basketball?"

Wall Street Journal "The morning after Jeremy Lin sank a thrilling, last-second three-pointer that lifted the New York Knicks over the Toronto Raptors and gave "Linsanity" its latest, rapturous chapter, the mysterious basketball oracle who saw it coming almost two years ago woke up in Bend, Ore., and blended himself a healthy green shake: celery, spinach, kale, orange juice. He put on his uniform, packed some trail mix for the road and pulled on his winter hat."

Bloomberg "This was the week when the productivity of Asian-Americans across the country slowed to a near-halt: There were YouTube clips to be watched and re- watched, memes to start and articles to be forwarded. The reason was the unlikely ascent of Jeremy Lin, the Taiwanese-American point guard for the New York Knicks."