Watching, much less, following sports has never been my thing, that is until I caught Linsanity (along with thousands of others around the world)! The web, but most importantly, my Facebook news feed has been bombarded with news updates regarding Jeremy Lin, the rookie, Asian-American, Harvard graduate who has led the New York Knicks to seven consecutive wins. Unfortunately, this winning streak broke last night after a tight game against the New Orleans, Hornets. Despite the lost, the explosion of Jeremy Lin can still be dubbed as the “Linderella” story. A story of the catapult to fame, essentially overnight of a young man, who had been cut by two NBA teams before joining the Knicks (bench) and had been on the brink of being cut by them too had the coach not been forced to include Lin in the lineup due to injuries on the team. And after that, I’m sure you have read all about it either on Facebook, or any other source of media these past few weeks.
But, aside from Lin’s obvious talent as a basketball player, another reason why the Knicks has had a stellar run after Lin’s first game is due to Lin’s leadership skills. While Lin’s own talent for the sport is spectacular, he realizes that for the Knicks to reach optimal performance, basketball should return to what it’s suppose to be, a team oriented game. Lin does not hog the ball; instead, he believes his duties as the team’s point guard is to “distribute and get people in a rhythm.” With a rhythm amongst the team, they can operate as a unit and bring their best game. During this past Wednesday’s game (2/15/2012) the number of points scored by the top players was pretty much evenly distributed. The top eight players that night each scored between nine and fifteen points.
With this new view of the Knicks’ play, their past dismal performance has been blamed on their selfish, ego driven plays. The main target of these allegations has been placed on Carmelo Anthony, who has a history of ball hogging. Now, with Anthony scheduled to return from his injuries, it remains to be seen if Anthony can adopt this new style of play as well.
P.S.: For those who have caught extreme Linsanity, and have a few grand lying around, the Knicks are auctioning off Jeremy Lin’s jersey worn against the Lakers last Friday for a good cause.
