The only human being hotter than six-time 2012 Grammy Award winning artist Adele right now is Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks. Over the last ten "linsane" days, Lin has taken the NBA, United States, China and, dare I say, the world, by an unexpected "linstant" storm.
Lin, the Harvard product, who was cut by the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, has ascended into the national and international spotlight at a breathtaking rate. He has grabbed headlines like Tim Tebow while producing at a historic rate.
In fact, in his first four starts prior to tonight's jaw-dropping performance against the Toronto Raptors in which he hit the game winner, Lin was averaging 27.3 points per game. According to this report, no player has scored that many points in that time period since the NBA/ABA merger of 1976.
Tonight, a former fellow NBA point guard shared some bold sentiments regarding Lin. None other than Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson, arguably the greatest point guard ever, tweeted the following:
@MagicJohnson Earvin Magic Johnson Everyone should be a believer in@Jlin7 after his shot to win the game tonight.
Those are obviously strong words from Johnson, who has played with and evaluated some of the best points guards to ever hit the hardwoods.
Johnson, however, was not done sharing his thoughts regarding Lin, specifically his feelings regarding the Knicks as a whole going forward. Johnson stated that the Bulls and heat "better watch them" when both Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony return to the lineup to play with Lin.
Many are anxious to see what type of chemistry the Knicks will have when they put the aforementioned "triple threat" of Lin, Stoudemire and Anthony on the floor together.
Going into the season, the predominant thought was that if the Knicks could somehow get some good guard play, they could indeed be a force in the Eastern Conference.
However, nobody knew that good guard play would come from Lin, who has been about as good as you can get, averaging 27 points in five starts for the Knicks, all wins. Several college coaches Lin faced are surprised by his stunning success. Heck, even his high school coach is surprised.
Time will tell if "linsanity" is a long-lived phenomenon or a brief blast of brilliant basketball.
Either way, the humble Lin has given us all some excitement and he might have just given the Knicks exactly what they needed: their best point guard since 1988 NBA Rookie of the Year Mark Jackson.
Shane Gray covers the St. Louis Rams year-round. You are encouraged to check out the rest of his work here and to follow him on Twitter.
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