Former Harvard Standout Lin '10 Has Career Night for Knicks

On one magical night at Madison Square Garden, Jeremy Lin ’10 finally got his chance.

And under the world’s brightest lights, going head-to-head with one of the best point guards in the world, the former Harvard standout shined.

With his team desperately in need of a win, it was Lin who delivered, recording a career-high 25 points, seven assists, and five rebounds in 36 minutes while playing lockdown defense on Nets star Deron Williams.

“This night just really hasn’t sunk in yet,” Lin said in his post-game press conference, where he was reportedly mobbed by 30 media members. “I’m still kind of in shock about everything that happened, but I’m just trying to soak it all in right now.”

Coming into the contest, the Knicks had lost 11 of their last 13, and when the home team fell behind by 12 in the first quarter, the Garden faithful had already broken into chants of “Fire D’Antoni,” referring to the Knicks embattled coach.

In came Lin, and by the end of the night, the home fans were still chanting—but this time, they were cries of “Je-re-my! Je-re-my!” for the second-year guard.

“He picked us up offensively; he played great defensively. We fed off his energy tonight down the stretch,” Carmelo Anthony told reporters after the game. “We put the ball in his hands, and he won the game for us.”

Anthony is normally the Knicks go-to guy, but on one Saturday, at least, it was Lin who stole the show.

He entered the game with 3:34 to go in the first quarter, and—other than a brief rest at the start of the third—did not return to the bench.

Lin began filling up the stat line in the second period. With the Knicks still down 12, the point guard hit a layup, had a steal, and found Toney Douglas with a lead pass in transition to begin bringing his team back.

“I just want to be able to make plays,” said Lin, who was in the D-League just two weeks ago. “You just go with what the defense gives you, and you see what happens.”

That was what Lin continued to do all night long. With 2:46 remaining in the half, the point guard broke down the defense for another layup and then fed Tyson Chandler an alley-oop to tie the game at 46.

“It was unbelievable what he was able to come in and bring,” Chandler said after the contest. “He brought that spark off the bench, and that’s really what we’ve been needing.”

Lin struggled with his shot for most of the third, but the crowd stayed behind him. With three seconds to go in the period, he finished an and-one to bring the Knicks with in two.

“The biggest thing is that he has a point guard’s mentality,” said D’Antoni, who noted that Lin would be seeing a lot more playing time in the future. “He has a rhyme or reason to what he’s doing. He gives us a good feel. And you can play off that.”

In the fourth quarter—on a team with two of the league’s top-five scorers last season—it was Lin who took over.

The point guard gave the Knicks the lead with a jumper over Williams early in the fourth, and put the Knicks up four on a pretty reverse layup later in the period.

With 2:02 to go, Lin split two defenders and got to the rim again, capping another and-one with two fist pumps and a bow from Anthony. He scored his 12th point of the quarter moments later as the arena roared with excitement.

“I didn’t do a good job containing Jeremy Lin,” said Williams, an all-star in each of the past two seasons. “Our game plan was to help off him, and he just started knocking down shots and got confidence, and he was relentless taking it to the basket.”

At the game’s conclusion, the Harvard grad could not contain his smile as he was mobbed at center court by his teammates, who looked almost as happy as Lin did.

The point guard could not have chosen a better time to break out, as time had been running out on his chances with the Knicks. Lin’s contract will not become guaranteed until Feb. 10, meaning he was in serious jeopardy of being cut before that date—until now.

“I’m just thankful to God for everything,” Lin explained. “Like the Bible says, ‘God works everything for the good of those who love Him,’ so I’m just thankful I’m able to be here with this team.”

The opportunity to have a night like that was a long time coming for the point guard.

After receiving no Division I scholarship offers coming out of college, going undrafted and receiving just one summer league offer after his four years at Harvard, and then being waived by two NBA teams, Lin has been fighting his whole career just to prove he belongs.

After playing sparingly—mostly in garbage time during blowouts—for the Knicks since he signed with them before the season began, Lin finally got his opportunity thanks to the struggles of the point guards initially ahead of him on the Knicks depth chart.

He moved his way ahead of Mike Bibby first, and after recording nine points and six assists in 20 minutes against the Rockets one week ago, jumped past the struggling Douglas as well.

With his job potentially on the line and the Knicks postseason aspirations in early jeopardy, D’Antoni turned to Lin.

Two hours later, the point guard was the talk of the country, a trending topic in the Twitterverse on the eve of the Super Bowl as Pearl Jam's “Jeremy” was blasted throughout the world's most famous arena. Lin's face was on the front page of the website of the worldwide leader in sports and plastered on the back page of the morning newspapers.

He had become a hero in the city that never sleeps, the place where “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”

On one spectacular night, at least, Jeremy Lin finally made it.