Jeremy Lin’s run in Madison Square Garden was short but memorable, so much so that the new York Knicks and the MSG Network decided to hold “Linsanity” Week during the tough self-isolation period.
In an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Lin revealed that he was “floored” when he first got the call from his agent about the Knicks' plan to air his historic run with the team.
“When I first got the call from my agent like, ‘Hey, they want to do this,’ I was floored,” Lin said on ESPN. “Because with COVID, right now, New York is going through one of the toughest times that it has seen in decades. It is a very, very tragic time. And the Knicks were like, ‘Hey, we need to do something to uplift everybody.’
“They have a whole history of footage and games that they can air, and they chose my games.”
Jeremy Lin joins #TheJump from China and tells us they've started 5-on-5 practices again there. We also talk Linsanity as the Knicks prepare to do a whole Linsanity Week, and how the Raptors team he was on last season may get a 2-year reign as NBA champions. pic.twitter.com/yKaC2NZUGL
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 1, 2020
The Harvard alum went undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft and played a forgettable rookie season. In January 2012, the sophomore guard was called up from the D-League after the Knicks went 8-15. In his first outing with New York that month, Lin dropped 25 points in a win against the New Jersey Nets. He took off from there.
With Lin’s leadership, the team took the league by storm. They won nine of their next 12 games and qualified for the playoffs. The unlikely star averaged more than 20 points, nine dimes, and over two steals a game.
It has been eight years since Jeremy Lin’s historical stint with the team. However, Linsanity is still a widely discussed cultural phenomenon today — as it can also be considered the Knicks’ most memorable run in the past decade or so.
Unfortunately, Lin's dominant run became muddled with drama. The point guard eventually signed with the Houston Rockets after his run with the Knicks, bouncing around five more teams afterwards. All is well, however, as he recently became a champion with the Toronto Raptors.
Lin left the NBA in the 2019 offseason and now plays in the Chinese Basketball Association.
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