Linsanity took centre stage at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night and the reviews came back positive.
That’s because Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, currently the darling of the basketball world, hit both the game-tying and game-winning shots to carry the Knicks to a comeback 90-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors in front of an adoring packed house.
“I’m just thankful that my coach and teammates trust me with the ball at the end of the game,” Lin said shortly afterwards.
When Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni took his turn at the podium after the game he began by jokingly saying, “I’m just glad it went like this so we can calm the Linsanity down.”
It was a playoff-like atmosphere in Toronto as the media horde descended upon the city to take in the latest movie-like chapter in the life of Lin.
More than 100 extra media requests were filled as there were several members of the American national media in attendance. They were joined by a large throng of New York reporters as well as a 25-person-strong group of Asian reporters from both Toronto and abroad.
Earlier in the day, the post-shootaround press conference had to be moved from the dressing room to the press centre at the ACC to accommodate more than 70 members of the media that were hoping to hear Lin speak.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I stood in the Raptors media room with two other reporters after a morning shootaround — just to give you an idea of how stark the contrast is.
It was a crazy twist of fate that saw Lin’s appearance in Toronto coincide with Asian Heritage Night at the ACC, perhaps fitting as we saw another chapter in Lin’s storybook rise from journeyman into budding superstar in a matter of days.
As Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said an hour before tip-off, “you could not write a book or a movie better than the story he is putting on now but not tonight,” as he hoped that his team would somehow slow down Lin’s mercurial rise.
Well Casey was right about one thing and wrong about another as Lin’s star continued to shine brightly against his Raptors later in the evening.
The night began with Casey being presented his championship ring by Knicks forward Tyson Chandler, as the two were both with Dallas a season ago — Casey as an assistant coach and Chandler as the starting centre.
The current Raptors coach knows the Taiwanese-American player fairly well as he spent some time with Lin two summers ago as the point guard was a member of the Mavericks’ summer squad as an undrafted rookie free agent.
The Raptors coach said he couldn’t understand why the Harvard grad was so intent on being an NBA player. Casey explained, “I asked him, why are you a basketball player? You’re smarter than all of us. You could be anything. He said, ‘this is his dream.’ So he’s living his dream.”
Casey said he didn’t think Lin was ready to be a star when they were together with the Mavs but that he had clearly put in some hard work since.
Raptors forward James Johnson saw evidence of that hard work when he watched Lin during the Knicks shootaround prior to the game in New York on Jan. 2 and he came away impressed with Lin’s effort.
“I saw him before the game we played down there and he was going hard. Probably one of the hardest shootarounds I have seen and it’s paying off for him,” Johnson explained.
Even two weeks ago, all of the extra effort that Lin had been putting forth had not paid off as he continued to be glued to the Knicks bench but then a couple of key Knicks were forced out of the lineup. First, Carmelo Anthony suffered a groin injury and then Amare Stoudemire suffered a personal tragedy when his brother was killed in a car accident. The duo are both among the top scorers in the NBA and their absence created a scoring void that forced the Knicks to give Lin his shot.
“You have to have luck in life and you have to have an opportunity to take advantage of and he took advantage of it,” D’Antoni explained earlier in the day as he was asked if Lin would have received his shot had the absences not occurred. “I would like to think that we would have been smart enough to keep him around in case that opportunity arose but I wouldn’t be sure of it.”
Lin has now scored 136 points in his first five starts for New York – all of which have resulted in wins.
After the latest win on Tuesday night, a loud chorus of cheers erupted from inside the Knicks locker-room as Lin finally entered after remaining courtside to talk to the broadcast crew.
One reporter asked, “Can you believe that this is happening to you?”
“No,” was his response.