Second-year New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin has seemingly come out of nowhere to take the NBA…and the Internet by storm. But the basketballer’s high school coach is not surprised.
Andrew Slayton, who coached Lin at Palo Alto High School in California, bought the domain name Linsanity.com two years ago.
“We are just trying to enjoy the Jeremy Lin Show and have a bit of creative fun at the same time,” Slayton told Guyism.com, about the site, which describes itself as the “official home of the freshest Jeremy Lin Apparel,” offering Linsanity-inspired T-shirts with slogans such as “Lin Your Face #17,” “New York Linsanity” and “Live from New York City, it’s … The Jeremy Lin Show”
“Having long ago been declared terminally LinSane, we have followed Jeremy Lin’s career since his days at Palo Alto High School always firmly believing that his time would come and that the world would know our LinSanity,” Slayton says on the site’s “About” page.
So, who is the 23-year-old who slayed Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night?
For starters, the previously undistinguished phenom sleeps on the couch of his brother, who is a New York University dental student living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His parents emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in the 70s, and he is the first American player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent in the NBA. He is also the first Harvard alum to play in the league since Ed Smith’s 11-game season for the Knicks in 1953-1954.
“My G.P.A. was not a 4.2,” says Lin, who studied economics. “That’s been the rumor. It’s not even possible. My friends have been absolutely killing me about that.” But he does have brains apparently — graduating with a 3.1.
Jeremy Lin just may be NBA’s answer to Tim Tebow, bringing his love of God to the game. “I know there is a lot of temptation out there, and I have heard about the NBA lifestyle,” the non-denominational Christian told Sports Illustrated in 2010. “I am not saying I am better than anybody else, but I am going to try to live the way I have always lived and try not to change just because I am in the NBA.” His plans after playing ball? Lin says he hopes to become a pastor and lead non-profit organizations either in the U.S. or abroad.
Scoring a career-high 38 points in Friday night’s battle with the Lakers, the overnight sensation is even getting praise from rival Kobe Bryant, who before the game told reporters he didn’t know who Lin was.
“Players don’t usually come out of nowhere,” Bryant, who scored 34 points for the Lakers, said after the game. “If you go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning but no one ever noticed.”
He added, “It’s a great story. It’s a testament to perseverance and hard work. I am sure he has put in a great deal of work to always have that belief in himself. Now he has the opportunity to show it.”
Watch the Linsanity Show video from Friday night’s Knicks/Lakers game below.