by Ted Kluck
At halftime the Knicks lead 56–51. Carmelo Anthony leads the team with 12 points and Amare Stoudamire has 10.
“I’m impressed with the Knicks,” says Magic Johnson at halftime. “They’re a team on the same page. . . . They have great chemistry, and I see guys high-fiving each other. Baron Davis came in and did a great job getting everybody involved.”
“I like the fact that ’Melo is fitting in,” adds Chris Broussard, talking about the fact that Carmelo’s happiness and motivation will go a long way toward ensuring the viability of the Knicks’ resurgence. It’s no secret that Lin has captivated the New York media, but the potential for team success has the Knick fan base buzzing. The team hasn’t won a title since ’73, and it’s been over a decade since they’ve won a playoff series. “I like the fact that it’s not just the Jeremy Lin show,” Broussard adds.
The Celtics appear to have gone to great lengths to ensure that it wouldn’t be the Jeremy Lin show. They’re bracketing Lin—taking away the pick-and-roll and proving that they studied the Miami Heat game tape closely. They’re forcing him into bad shots and bad passes. Teams have a full archive of film on Lin now, and many are facing him for a second time.
Meanwhile, Rondo is attacking Lin like an animal and putting on a clinic. He notches his 10th assist on a beautiful wraparound pass in the third quarter, and is well on his way to a triple-double. Rondo has 7 assists in the third quarter alone, as the Celtics outscore the Knicks 29–9. ’Melo and Stoudamire have completely disappeared, along with the rest of the Knick offense.
Lin (6 points, 6 turnovers) opens the fourth quarter on the bench, while Steve Novak, who is shooting 4–7 from beyond the arc, keeps the Knicks in the game. Baron Davis finds ’Melo for his first bucket since the first half. And while he’s still not playing any defense, Amare Stoudamire hits two free throws with 4:03 left in the game—his first points of the second half. For the Knicks to be for real, their stars can’t disappear for long stretches like this.
The end of the fourth quarter will provide an example of everything good about NBA basketball, as well as the day’s first sighting of the “real” Jeremy Lin. On back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter, Lin provides a beautiful, signature “hustle” play by turning the ball over, getting it back, and then driving down the lane for a gutty layup. On his drive, he protects the ball like an NFL fullback might while plowing through a defensive line. And then, on the very next trip down, he knocks down a three-ball from the corner.
Then Carmelo Anthony and Paul Pierce take over. Anthony will sink the next three Knick baskets, giving them a 101–100 lead with 36 seconds left. After a pair of Steve Novak free throws, the Celtic captain hits a long, leaning three-pointer to tie the game at 103.
In overtime, Rondo takes over. He finds Ray Allen on the wing for a three-pointer, and then leads a fast break after a Lin miss, dropping the ball to a trailing Allen for the layup that would provide the dagger. He played a part in every Celtic point in overtime, collecting 5 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists, and driving his total stat line to 18 points, 20 assists, and a career-high 17 rebounds. “He’s the smartest player I’ve ever been around,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers after the game. “He’s a brilliant player like that.”
Never underestimate the NBA’s ability to deliver a signature “knockout” performance. Lin has been on the business end of a couple of these now—first the Heat game, and now this one. It’s the kind of game where Lin’s opponents (this time Rondo) essentially say, “Yeah, about that excessive attention you’ve been receiving . . . this is why I’m a marquee NBA point guard.”
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Aside: New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams will explode for 57 points in a win over Charlotte later this evening.
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Because of the way it highlights individual performances, the NBA is tailor-made for this kind of thing, and it’s part of what makes the NBA great. As much as I love Jeremy Lin, I also loved seeing Paul Pierce, KG, and Rondo reassert themselves. When great athletes play up to their potential, we all win.
11
On Making All Things New and Our Responsibility to Jeremy Lin
Perhaps what was most enjoyable about Lin when he burst onto the scene is that for a moment he was absolutely new. As cool as it is, the Tom Brady “overlooked-in-the-draft” narrative is now old. It’s become a part of Brady Folklore. And as amazing as he is on the field, he’s a little robotic in the interview room. Ditto for the “I was carrying grocery bags at Hy-Vee before I became a Super Bowl Champion” Kurt Warner narrative. Tim Tebow has been in front of a camera since he was old enough to drive a car. We can now say his lines before he does.
Even Lin, a whole ten games into his career as I write this section, seems to be losing his newness. There was, to me, a growing self-consciousness in his All-Star Weekend press conference. Perhaps it was the cream-colored Standard NBA Issue Pimp Suit or just a level of fatigue that can’t help but show through. Granted, part of being famous is talking about how not into fame you are, but still.
“If I ever make it to the NBA for more than, like, a ten-day contract,” Lin said in the Harvard dorm room YouTube interview, “I’d like to write an autobiography and talk about my faith.” I hope Lin gets to write that book someday and, as the rare intellectual athlete, he doesn’t need guys like me to do it for him. That’s a sports book that I would pay good money to read.
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Aside: A couple of days before my deadline, Lin and the Knicks are on a three-game losing streak: In addition to the Boston loss (115–111 OT), they lost at Dallas, 95–85, in a game they were never really “in” and at San Antonio, 118–105. Lin looked human in both games, as evidenced by the ESPN.com postgame report, which read, “Fading fast is the feel-good glow of Linsanity: New York has lost six of nine and has only stumbled since Jeremy Lin and Carmelo Anthony were reunited just before the All-Star game.” The Knicks are 2–5 with Anthony back in the lineup, perhaps proving another odd NBA theorem, which is that sometimes teams actually get better when they lose or otherwise take away a great player. Carmelo Anthony is probably the Knicks’ best pure player, but the Knicks may be better without him.
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We don’t know what Jeremy Lin will become. He may never play another game in the NBA or go on to play for a decade and win six NBA titles. He might spray champagne in locker rooms, kiss trophies, wear championship T-shirts, and be immortalized in slow-motion highlight packages, or he could be coaching high school basketball in two years. More than likely it will be something in between. Because we know that Lin is in Christ, and Christ is in Lin, the Lord will finish the good work He began in Jeremy Lin. This, alone, is cause for celebration. Just like the Lord will finish the good work he began in us, if we are in Him.
My hope is that he wins those titles, if only to provide some much-needed perspective on what it means to win titles. But based on what we know about sports, the odds are long against that happening. If he’s anything like us (and I believe he is), he’ll win some, he’ll lose some. He may find and lose love. He’ll one day have children and then spend many years worrying about those children.
So how does an understanding of God’s sovereignty change us as athletes? As fans? We’re seeing glimpses of it in Jeremy Lin. One, we can work joyfully, with no fear of man—no fear of the media, the fans, or even coaches who can sometimes fill our athletic experiences with anxiety. Two, we can rest easy in the knowledge that God knows the number of games that Jeremy Lin plays, he knows the number of titles that the Knicks will or won’t win, and in that, he’s more concerned with Jeremy Lin’s holiness and sanctification than with the other two things.
Through the floor in my office I can hear my kids playing one-on-one on our basement hoop. One of them is pretending to be Jeremy Lin. This, as I mentioned in the intro, is the athlete’s highest compliment. And as long as children pretend to be him, in their driveways, he’ll always mean something to us.
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Taylor, Justin. “The Faith of Jeremy Lin.” GospelCoalition.org. February 10, 2012. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/02/10/the-faith-of-jeremy-lin-an-interview/.
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Ted Kluck is the author of several books on topics ranging from Mike Tyson to the Emergent Church. Both Why We’re Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church (with Kevin DeYoung) won Christianity Today Book of the Year awards, and Paper Tiger: One Athlete’s Journey to the Underbelly of Pro Football won a Michigan Notable Book award in 2008. His work has also appeared in ESPN the Magazine and Christianity Today.
