A great story in today’s New York Times mentioned how Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin was still sleeping on his brother’s couch.
In front of a bank of cameras and recorders following shootaround this morning at Verizon Center, one reporter asked Lin about his comfort level after laying claim to New York’s starting point guard position and putting to rest any notion that he might be waived this week.
“I guess I need to get a place then,” Lin said. “I’m obviously very thankful and this is kind of sigh of relief, but at this point, I’m not really thinking about that. I haven’t really been thinking about that the last week. We just gotta get this win tonight, three in a row.”
So then, welcome Linsanity to Washington, where tonight’s contest won’t be about Amar’e Stoudemire, who will miss the game as he mourns the loss of his brother, or Carmelo Anthony, who is out with a groin strain.
“[Lin] has been outstanding the last two games,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. “He’s really controlled the tempo of their offense in a way I think they’ve been trying to find somebody to do that. He’s done an excellent job, but we just gotta be concerned with how we’re playing and how we’re going to go out more so than Jeremy Lin or the New York Knicks.”
But everybody else wants to know about the former Harvard star who was cut by his hometown Golden State Warriors at the start of the year, then signed and cut by the Houston Rockets a few weeks later before landing in New York via waivers just after Christmas. He’s had 53 points and 15 assists in his last two games, including 28 points and eight assists in his first NBA start, the first player to do that since Isiah Thomas in 1981.
Which actually makes all the attention that Lin is receiving familiar.
“I think last year was very helpful for this year just because last year, it was kind of like this before I had ever played a game,” Lin said. “It was a lot for me at that time. I struggled, and it hurt me on the court just trying to get used to the lights and the attention and everybody watching. I think I’m more prepared this year.”
And he’s preparing tonight for a renewal of his battle with John Wall during a Las Vegas summer league game in 2010, where he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to pull the Dallas Mavericks back from an 18-point deficit to just four before losing to the Wizards, 88-82, as Wall put up 21 points and 10 assists.
“Thinking back, it was just like a blur,” Lin said. “I feel like every time you have a game like that, it’s just like a blur, you don’t really remember everything. I think that was the biggest game for me in the summer league.”
Does he think it helped him get his rookie shot with the Warriors? “Probably.”
Asked to compare Wall and Lin, Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said: “That’s a different speed. That’s more speed than quickness. [Wall] has both. Jeremy has quickness.”
“We’re very different now than we were then so it’s going to be different tonight,” Lin said. “We have different systems that we’re in and so there’s going to be a lot of different factors. Obviously, I respect him as a player a lot, and he’s an unbelievable player so I’m going to have my hands full.”
As the Knicks’ brightest new star, handling Wall is just the start.
