By now you have probably heard about a new NBA phenomenon Jeremy Lin. Jeremy Lin is an undrafted point guard playing for New York Knicks, who is averaging 24.6 points, 8.9 assists and 1.9 steals per game. Lin owns the record for most points scored in first 6 games (136) to start NBA career, which is more than Kobe Brayant and even Michael Jordan. Although he has played only 7 NBA games this season, he helped his team win 6 of those 7 games and game at a critical time when almost all of their star players were lost to injuries. Two of the 6 games were against LA Lakers + Kobe Bryant and Dallas Mavericks + Dirk Nowitzki. Everyone calls his situation a miracle including Lin himself because he was a such an underdog to making the NBA that his chance was basically zero to none. He is truly a Cinderella story and who doesn’t like Cinderella stories
Jeremy Lin graduated from Harvard. What makes this fact so amazing is that only 3 Harvard graduates had made to the NBA until Lin’s emergence this year. Do you know how many US presidents were graduate from Harvard? Eight! That’s right. As a Harvard graduate, you have a better chance of becoming the US President than an NBA player. On top of this amazing fact, Jeremy Lin is the first Asian American to even play a game in NBA. There have been several Asian NBA players but they were all directly from Asia and did not grow up in the US.
As an underdog, Jeremy Lin is disciplined and hard worker. He knows he is not the best player and thus he makes his best effort to be better in playing basketball. Jeremy Lin works hard and shows up to every practice and game. Lin believes this is his key to being Linsanity. Jeremy Lin is an amazing person in my opinion because he basically proved to the world that hard work with discipline can bring greatness to just an ordinary person.
Perseverance also plays a big part in Linsanity. Even though Lin kept hearing that he is not good enough basketball player, he never quit and continued doing what he needed to do using his discipline and hard work habits. Both Cal and Standford passed on him by not giving him the scholarship and forced Lin to take his basketball skills to Harvard where he became the best Ivy league basketball player in history. For some reason, Lin’s accomplishments weren’t good enough to get drafted by any NBA teams. Lin persevered all this and continued to go after his dream of playing in NBA games.
Despite Lin’s work habits, discipline and perseverance, luck played a critical role in changing Jeremy Lin to Linsanity. Jeremy Lin was picked up by New York Knicks on December 27, 2011 and he was basically Knicks last and fourth point guard. The only reason why coach Mike D’Antoni decided to play Lin was because the other point guards were either injured or were totally ineffective. This situation was a pretty much all luck to Jeremy Lin because there was nothing he could have done to force this situation other than continuing to improve and persevere. Jeremy Lin was ready to grab and seize his opportunity and he did just that.
Jeremy Lin and his Linsanity is an amazing story. We are so excited to hear and follow Jeremy Lin. However, we should also examine closely and learn something from all this so that we ourselves can be better. Have you bought into Linsanity?
While I never translate short-term success into long-term achievement, I absolutely love the story. I like that he just kept working hard and was able to take advantage of what might have possibly been the only chance he’d ever get. I also like that it’s positive media. In the age of “tear somebody down” media, this is really cool.
That’s right. Luck is the intersection of preparedness and opportunity. It is only because Lin was prepared when the opportunity presented itself that he was able to take advantage of the situation. That is why many think he is just lucky.
He’s only played 7 games against subpar teams albeit. Look what happened when he played Rondo or when Williams decided to play in the last NETS game. If the Knicks make it to the playoffs we will see what Linsanity does. Also they play the HEAT this Thursday that will be the true test.
I hope he can keep it up. It’s a great story so far. I’m sure the top point guards in the league will beat him now, but he is young and will keep improving. He is like John Stockton and have a long career ahead of him. I need to catch up on the games, I’ve only seen the news so far.
Yes, this a sports story, but I see it as a metaphor for life. Work on your skills and talent. Be ready for your next opportunity and go for it.
My dad told me that Jeremy sleeps on the couch in his friends apartment. Maybe I misunderstood or something. One thing is for sure though this guy came out of nowhere. I mean for me he did anyways.