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发帖数: 9501 | 1 Jeremy Lin: Even Kobe bows to his star power
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
NEW YORK – Somehow, the most improbable story in NBA history found
himself
in the most improbable place on Friday night: The ball in his hands,
Madison
Square Garden on its feet, and the fourth quarter genius of Los Angeles
Lakers star Kobe Bryant determined to obliterate this burgeoning
mythology.
Out of Bryant, had come a barrage: twisted, contorted fades, a self-pass
off
the backboard, the A-list arsenal out of the world’s most gifted
scorer.
Somehow, Jeremy Lin never flinched. Somehow, Jeremy Lin never let
himself
become a spectator, never stopped to wonder what in the world he was
doing
out here. The ball was so safe, so snug, in his hands. There was such an
easy effortlessness to the downright diabolical manner with which he
dismantled the Lakers and Bryant. Sheer hysteria had thundered down on
the
Garden floor, a phenomenon called Linsanity, and the most polished, most
poised, presence happened to be Lin.
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Jeremy Lin scored a career-high 38 points in the Knicks' victory over
the
Lakers.
(Getty Images)
This kid out of nowhere – out of Harvard University, out of the Reno
Bighorns and Erie Bayhawks – had done it again, done it with a
devastating
38 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals in the Knicks’
92-85
victory over the Lakers.
“Players don’t come out of nowhere,” Bryant said.
What he was trying to say was this: The talent’s there, but sometimes
the
opportunity isn’t. It takes the right circumstances and timing, the
right
coach, right system. And sometimes, it takes desperation to try
anything.
And for these New York Knicks, well, Jeremy Lin constituted anything.
[ Related: Jeremy Lin’s Ivy League roots ]
Four games, four victories for these Knicks. Four games, and he’s
transformed these Knicks in a way that no one can fully describe, fully
believe. Bryant has made a career out of torching the Knicks, leaving
the
Garden to ovations. He’s scored 50 points here, even 60.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Bryant had been bemused over this Lin story.
He
wanted details, wanted to know the fuss. “Well, he’s got to deal with me
now,” Bryant said. Somehow, Lin did. Another crescendo for him, another
staggering performance in a week where he had gone for 25 points and
seven
assists, 28 and eight and 23 and 10.
Here came the Lakers, and here was Lin popping 3-pointers and twisting
layups and free throw upon clutch free throw. Here came Lin to stop
Kobe,
and yes, stop the NBA cold.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni marveled. “
I have never seen this. What he’s doing is amazing.”
It isn’t the scoring with Lin. No one in the history of the NBA has
scored
as much in his first three starts, but this has nothing to do with the
statistics. It’s the feel, the touch, the spirit and the purity of it
all.
No Amar’e Stoudemire. No Carmelo Anthony. And it doesn’t matter what
spare
parts are thrown together with Lin because he’s elevated everyone,
transformed five fingers into a fist.
“It’s a completely different team,” center Tyson Chandler said. “You can
’t look at this team the same.”
Kobe Bryant called Lin's sudden rise to stardom a "great story." "It's a
testament to perseverance and hard work," Bryant said.
(Getty Images)
Chandler won a title with the Dallas Mavericks a season ago, played with
Jason Kidd and hadn’t come to New York to sell false hopes with false
prophets. Four games with Lin, and he knows what they have with him. “He
just has a pace and a confidence,” Chandler said. “He just keeps coming.
I
haven’t seen anything like this. He’s taken us all by surprise … us,
the
league.
“He’s not a fluke.”
That’s a message to Anthony: Don’t mess this up. Stoudemire will return
to
the Knicks on Monday, and Lin will be a godsend for him. They’ll play
pick
-and-roll basketball, fit seamlessly together. Out with a groin injury,
Anthony watched Lin with a pensive eye, at times devoid of the
exuberance of
his teammates, at others rollicking along with everyone else. He has to
understand: Despite a max contract, his All-Star seasons, his face on
the
Garden marquee, suddenly Anthony has to fit into Jeremy Lin’s Knicks.
Just
four games, and yet that’s no exaggeration. Four games, and here’s an
unmistakable truth: These Knicks are following Lin.
[ Video: Can Jeremy Lin lead the Knicks? ]
“We are a team,” D’Antoni said. “His personality has rubbed off on the
guys.”
Before D’Antoni had run out of players to try for these Knicks a week
ago,
before he had thrown Lin into a game with the New Jersey Nets, the
Knicks’
front office had a decision to make: Do we guarantee Lin’s contract for
the
rest of the season, or release him with Tuesday’s deadline?
Knicks executive Mark Warkentien had been calling trusted associates in
the
NBA’s D-League, league sources told Yahoo! Sports, and asking them: Who
does Lin play like? Who’s a good comparison? The Knicks had to make a
decision based on old information, old scouting reports. And then,
finally,
D’Antoni dispatched Lin into the game against the Nets. Here was the
answer
, the unfolding of a week that has made Lin a sporting and cultural
spectacle.
“A great story,” Bryant said. “It’s a testament to perseverance and hard
work. A good example for kids everywhere.”
Those who worked with Lin in the D-League a year ago will tell you: He’s
so
grounded, so smart, so savvy, that he’s the perfect person to keep his
bearings within a world exploding around him. Lin shrugs and simply
says, “
I am not really too worried about proving anything to anybody.”
All these years of futility here, all these saviors marching into
Madison
Square Garden with the biggest names, the biggest reputations. Stephon
Marbury and Isiah Thomas. Larry Brown and Carmelo Anthony. Big noise,
big
promises, and yet dysfunction and disillusionment rule the day. Soon,
it’s
onto someone else. Someone else is coming, and fresh salvation promises
to
be on its way. It’s the ultimate shell game with these Knicks, a
reflection
on a contaminated franchise culture.
For the first time, it feels like the Knicks opened a window and let the
freshest of air inside the building. This time, salvation had come off
the
waiver wire and crashes on his brother’s couch in the city. This time,
salvation still gets stopped at Madison Square Garden security,
suspected of
being one of the team’s trainers – not its point guard.
Salvation is fleeting and often temporary, but something about Lin’s
game
seems to have such staying power. “He comes up with ideas,” D’Antoni
said
. “He’s reading everything well. That’s rare.”
So rare, so improbable. Everyone stayed inside the Garden, listened to
Lin’
s on-court interview over the Garden sound system. M-V-P, they chanted.
M-V-
P. People stayed in seats, screaming, yelling, snapping photos. Out
there,
all alone, those gangly arms, that baby face – well, Lin hardly looks
the
part. That’s the beauty of him, of this story. That nothing is how it’s
supposed to be, how we’ve ever witnessed a star burst onto the scene.
Twenty-four hours earlier, and Kobe Bryant had been bemused over the
Jeremy
Lin story. Kobe always came to the Garden, and always had his way.
And now, the fourth quarter, the victory, the storyline, the thunder
tumbling down onto the Garden floor belonged to the improbable,
incredible
Jeremy Lin. “Enjoy it,” Bryant would say late in the locker room. “They’
ll receive judgment next season.”
[ Also: Latest chapter of Lakers-Celtics rivalry coming to an end ]
This was Bryant’s grudging show of respect, his way of acknowledging
this
kid had become worth seeking a measure of revenge. The greatest player
on
the planet had come to obliterate the mythology of Jeremy Lin, and only
played a part in growing it. Everyone left Madison Square Garden a
little
dazed on Friday night, a little stunned and perhaps no one so much as
Jeremy
Lin himself.
All hell is breaking loose around these Knicks, around this league, and
Jeremy Lin keeps coming and coming and coming. Somehow, he was the
biggest
star on the floor Friday. Somehow, this night, this week, this point
guard
job, belong to him.
Somehow, Jeremy Lin. |
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