Jeremy Lin – the man who became an NBA superstar overnight

The 2011 NBA lockout was beneficial for Jeremy Lin. He changed his shooting form and became much stronger physically. Still, no one could have anticipated that a player who averaged just 2.6 points per game in his rookie season would become the hottest name in the league in February 2012.

Lin first appeared in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors, but due to the lockout, he didn’t get a chance to prove himself to the team’s new head coach, Mark Jackson. Lin was cut at the end of the lockout since his rookie season was unremarkable, and Jackson wanted to strengthen the team with a center.

Three days later, Lin joined the Houston Rockets, where he was allowed to showcase himself in a couple preseason games. He played little and did not make much of an impression again. Given that the Rockets already had point guards Kyle Lowry, Goran Dragic, and Jonny Flynn under guaranteed contracts, Lin went looking for another new team. By a twist of fate, he left Houston so they could strengthen their squad with a center.

Once again, it took Lin three days to get his next opportunity.

The New York Knicks had released point guard Chauncey Billups to sign center Tyson Chandler. With Baron Davis sidelined by an injury and Iman Shumpert also hurt, the club from the Big Apple needed depth in their backcourt.

Thus, they signed Lin. And what a great decision that turned out to be…

Lin feared being released

Lin, a Harvard graduate, aimed to become a backup for the Knicks. Yet, despite the injuries to his teammates, he did not get many opportunities.

As a result, Lin was sent to the D-League in January 2012. A triple-double there helped him return to the Knicks, but he was so afraid of being cut that he asked a chaplain to pray on his behalf.

Lin did return to the Knicks, but Davis’ injury absence turned out to be unexpectedly long, so the club considered releasing the protagonist of this story.

Looking back, we can only thank higher powers that the Knicks didn’t because Lin, who fought tooth and nail to keep his spot, rose to superstardom.

D’Antoni’s joker

To be fair, Lin played a minor role in the Knicks’ first game in February. He was on the court for seven minutes, but the game against the Boston Celtics was significant. New York blew a fourth-quarter lead, losing by two points, and the fans demanded the firing of head coach Mike D’Antoni.

After the Celtics game, the Knicks had lost 11 of their last 13 matches. Lin played little, but since none of the team’s point guards managed to execute D’Antoni’s offense effectively, and the pressure was immense, the coach decided to give Lin a chance.

On February 4th, at their home court, Madison Square Garden, the Knicks faced the Brooklyn Nets. Lin earned the most minutes of his NBA career (36) and became the joker D’Antoni desperately needed. He scored 25 points, dished out seven assists, and, most importantly, led the Knicks to a 99-92 victory.

The rest, as they say, is history. Lin was promoted to the starting lineup for the next game and continued his impressive streak, scoring points and orchestrating the offense. Under his leadership, the Knicks won seven consecutive games.

Before the All-Star break at the end of the month, Lin started 12 games in February. The Knicks won nine, and their new star averaged 22.5 points and 8.7 assists during that period.

Among those games were several memorable performances. For instance, he scored 38 points against the Los Angeles Lakers, prompting a comment from Kobe Bryant, who had 34 points in that game. “Players playing that well don’t usually come out of nowhere. It seems they come out of nowhere, but if you can go back and look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. It probably just went unnoticed,” Bryant said.

Against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Lin secured the win for the Knicks with a free throw 4.9 seconds before the end when the score was 98-98. Three days later, he hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give his team a 90-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

While Lin’s Spectacular month is often highlighted by his standout game against the Lakers, his best performance was actually against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. He scored 28 points and dished out 14 assists. As USA Today wrote, Lin overcame everything the Mavericks threw at him: double-teams, traps, blitzes, tall defenders, smaller defenders, stocky, thin – Lin found a way.

Lin’s rise stirred up bad blood

Lin’s momentum slowed in March. Partly because D’Antoni was replaced as head coach by Mike Woodson, who ran fewer pick and rolls, which suited Lin so well. Partly because Lin was troubled by a knee injury that required surgery, prompting him to end his season prematurely.

Four years later, it emerged that the period known as Linsanity had caused a lot of tension within the Knicks. “The problem that we had was that for Jeremy to be really good, which he was, he had to play a certain way,” D’Antoni said in an interview with ESPN in 2016.

“Amar’e Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony had to play a certain way too to be really good. So there was that inherent conflict of what’s better for the team and what isn’t. Can they co-exist? Can they not? And again, they could have co-existed if Melo went to the 4, which he didn’t want to, and Amar’e came to the backup 5, which he didn’t want, though.”

A few months earlier, Stoudemire had also noted that not everyone at the Knicks was happy with Lin’s new status. Although he did not name anyone specifically, everyone in the NBA knew he was referring to Anthony.

Thus, Lin’s career in New York lasted only one season. Yet, to his credit, he did not become a one-hit wonder in the NBA.

Yes, Lin never again became as big a star as he was in February 2012, but he ultimately had a respectable nine-season NBA career, averaging just over 11 points and four assists per game.

Moreover, the NBA gave him more than money and fame when he won the championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Since then, the 36-year-old Lin has played in China, the G League, and Taiwan, fading from the picture regarding top-level basketball.

But NBA fans will never forget that incredible month 12 years ago.