NBA NEWS AT YOUWAGER: ‘LIN-SANITY’ SWEEPS THE NBA All Sports Room

Feb 14 2012

NBA NEWS AT YOUWAGER: ‘LIN-SANITY’ SWEEPS THE NBA

Posted by Angelina Merewether in Betting Advisor

Ive surrendered that to God. Im not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore.”

-Jeremy Lin, New York Knicks

Is Jeremy Lin the new Tim Tebow of the NBA?

YouWager’s NBA basketball bettors don’t seem to be able to escape a headline about the young Chinese-American NBA phenomenon these days. Unlike most stars in the world of professional basketball, bettors usually become familiar with an athlete’s skills on the courts in their college careers and then see them in the NBA. Lin seemed to come out of nowhere. He was playing for Harvard, but that isn’t exactly the spotlight for a serious college basketball bettor. Some professional scouts somewhere, must be kicking themselves. Or as Kobe Bryant said, after Lin scored 38 points on February “Players playing that well dont usually come out of nowhere. It seems like they come out of nowhere, but if you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. It probably just went unnoticed.

Clearly, someone somewhere, was not paying attention.

Jeremy Lin, who was not recruited out of high school and wasn’t drafted out of college, ultimately ended up in the NBA’s minor leagues. But only a few days later, he came to Knicks to warm their bench. Then on February 4^th, he scored 25 points, with 5 rebounds and 7 assists. The next game, Lin got 28 points and eight assists, and then he scored 38 points for a win against the LA Lakers, to top off an incredible week and four wins in a row, despite claims by people like Floyd Mayweather. The attention Lin is getting these days may have less to do with his Asian heritage. It may have more to do with the fact than many basketball betting fans had never heard of him before now.

Lin identifies himself as a Christian first and as an Asia-American second. He is one of the few Asian Americans to ever play in the NBA and the very first American born player to be of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. Jeremy Lin was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he led his basketball team at Palo Alto High School to the state championships in his senior year. But he didn’t really even expect to play in college. Lin told a YouWager source, “Honestly, I didnt know if I was going to be able to play in high school. I was always one of the smallest guys. I went into high school at 53, 125 pounds, and every day I came home from practice asking my parents if I would grow taller. So, physically, I was so far behind. I was just trying to make the varsity team, let alone play in college. I had no idea what God had in store for me.”

Lin sent his resume and a highlight video to all the Ivy League schools, the University of California, and his dream teams, Stanford, and UCLA. The Pac-10 schools only offered a chance to be a ‘walk on’ player. Harvard and Brown were the only teams that guaranteed him a place on their roster, but Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships. Lin went to Harvard. Joe Lacob, owner of the Golden State Warriors, said Stanford’s scout was “really stupid. The kid was right across the street. If you can’t recognize that, youve got a problem.”

YouWager’s senior NBA wagering analyst says NCAA limits on visits from coaches could have also been a factor. “Many colleges may evaluate a player on the first few minutes they see. How high a guy jumps and how hard he hustles,” YouWager’s NBA betting pro says. “Usually, they have already heard a lot of the hype.” Lin has spoken about this, too. “I just think in order for someone to understand my game, they have to watch me more than once, because I’m not going to do anything that’s extra flashy or freakishly athletic.

By his senior year at Harvard, in the 2009 basketball betting season, Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks, and was again a unanimous selection for All-Ivy League First Team. He got national attention with his performance against the 12th ranked Connecticut Huskies when he a career high of 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds. After the game, Connecticut’s coach, Jim Calhoun said, Ive seen a lot of teams come through here, and he could play for any of them. Hes got great, great composure on the court. He knows how to play.”

After graduating from Harvard in 2010 with a degree in economics, Lin went undrafted in the NBA Draft. Eight teams invited Lin to predraft workouts. If he had been drafted, Lin would have been the first Ivy Leaguer chosen by the NBA since Jerome Allen back in 1995. But NBA tryouts do not play five on five. Lin said they were one on one or two on two or three on three, and that’s not where I excel. I’ve never played basketball like that. Later, he joined the Dallas Mavericks for a mini-camp and ended up playing in their Summer League. In July of 2010, Lin signed a partially guaranteed deal with the Golden State Warriors, one of his favorite teams when he was growing up. Lin developed something of a cult following, largely because of the large Asian-American population in the San Francisco area. But Lin describes this period as a time when he focused on improving his game. Noticing the high expectations that came with this, he warned fans. I wont be an All-Star this year,” he said. Discouraged, he was eventually demoted to the club’s D League. But Lin says he used this time to develop his skills.

After the end of the NBA lockout, Lin was claimed off waivers by the Houston Rockets. At the end of December, the New York Knicks claimed Lin as a backup player. The third-string point guard made his season debut on the road against the Warriors. After the Knicks beat the New Jersey Nets 99-92, teammate Carmelo Anthony suggested to Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni that Lin should play more in the second half. Later D’Antoni admitted that the young player had a sound point-guard mentality. In their next game, against the Utah Jazz, Lin made his first starting appearance in an NBA game. Since then, he seems to be playing fearlessly. Anthony’s status is more of a question mark lately, due to a recent injury.

Tonight at 7:30PM Eastern the New York Knicks will face the Sacramento Kings. At YouWager, the Knicks are 6.5 favorites. The Total is 200.

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