The Knicks have had some trouble at point guard. They were also coming up quickly on a deadline where they had to make a decision about players with non-guaranteed contracts. Enter, Jeremy Lin. He led the Harvard basketball team, but was not drafted by an NBA team. After floating around the team for a year, the Knicks picked him up.
In the first 23 games, he averaged 2.3 minutes and 1.4 points a game. In the last two he has averaged 40.5 minutes and 26.5 points. He’s now the starting point guard for the Knicks and the talk of the city and American Chinese/Taiwanese community. It’s pretty amazing.
His contract, potentially worth nearly $800,000, was not even guaranteed until Tuesday afternoon. So for the past six weeks, Lin, 23, has been sleeping in his brother Josh’s living room, waiting for clarity and career security.
“He has his own couch,” Josh Lin, a New York University dental student, said cheerfully.
And to make it even more interesting:
Dwyane Wade per 48 minutes: 29.4 PTS, 6.2 REB, 7.6 AST, 2.8 STL. Jeremy Lin per 48 minutes: 30.2 PTS, 6.0 REB, 11.4 AST, 2.5 STL.
— Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) February 7, 2012
Woh.