I rub my fingers together in a gesture indicating an indescribable essence, what the French call, je nais se quoi, that intangible magic that makes something distinctive or attractive.
How else could one describe wonderful New York City for a recent two-week period at the end of February when “Linsanity” overcame it? The city convulsed in ecstasy over the strange remarkable rise of Jeremy Lin, from no-name benchwarmer to starting point guard for the New York Knicks professional basketball team.
Live anywhere else in the United States and you know that everyone hates New York. It’s the worst of the worst of a country based on excess and greed and pollution and vice. Family life is remarkably difficult in New York and in the minds of regular Americans, the Big Apple equals urban gangsterism and liberalism run amok.
Talk to New Yorkers, though, and they say and think, how could one live anyplace else?
On a Thursday night after work last month, in an upscale East Side of Manhattan establishment, four “old boys” reminisced and peered intermittently at a large-screen television. We are all now considerably older than 40, alumni of a distinguished New York area prep school, a high school in a bucolic section of Riverdale in the otherwise rough and tough borough of the Bronx. The younger graduates there are hip and have futures and gather among themselves in their own corners of the upstairs private room. I say hello to a few of them presumably to network a bit, but mostly to live vicariously through their still newly minted freshness and palpable optimism.
In Pittsburgh, one can always talk about the Steelers; In Wyoming, you can always talk about the weather, specifically, the lack of rain, “gosh, we need the moisture.” In New York, though, there is always the “flavor of the moment,” which right now is Jeremy Lin.
The Harvard (can you believe it, Harvard?) graduate burst on the scene while Knick stars Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire were absent from the line-up due to an injury and a death in the family, respectively. Lin, a Taiwanese-American from Northern California led the underperforming Knickerbockers on a 7-2 winning streak including comeback victories over the World Champion Dallas Mavericks, and a 38-point explosion in which the Knicks shocked Kobe Bryant and the Tinsel Town Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA’s glamour team. Since Lin joined the starting lineup, the Knicks were on a 10-3 streak and even though they are only 18-18 for the season, talk has returned of ending the championship drought since 1972-73.
It’s called Linsanity, and every Lin pun has graced the headlines of New York’s many broadsheet and tabloid newspapers from “Lin Win” to “In-Lin-sible,” to “All Lin” and even, “Be my Va-Lin-Tine.”
There have been a few hiccups: a home court loss to the local rival Nets, New Jersey denizens moving to Brooklyn next season, and Lin’s annoying propensity for turnovers, including one we watched on Thursday night when a Miami Heat guard literally stole the ball from Lin so fast that the New York darling did not even know what had hit him. The game against the Miami Heat, because of the Lin hype and the opponent being LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of the Heat was probably the most important Knick contest since they lost a Game 7 Championship Final to the Houston Rockets in 1994. The Knicks lost again Thursday.
From a sports perspective, there probably has not been as an exciting rookie debut in New York as Lin’s since pitcher Dwight Gooden joined the Mets in 1984.
At the end of the day, though, the Lin story transcends sports and reflects a cultural shift, more than anything else. New York, which has always been a melting pot city, is perhaps more international than ever with large Chinese and Indian populations. In fact this is a trend throughout theUnited States and Canada. In fact, when Lin sank a game-winning shot in Toronto, the fans there roared in delight and it was clear from watching the highlights that the people cheering the loudest were Asians rollicking in the stands. I’m told that Lin’s exploits are front page news inChina and Korea, just to name two places in the Far East.
Two weekends ago was the NBA All-Star Game extravaganza, and although Lin did not qualify for the game, he was Topic A, including getting to play in the rookie-sophomore exhibition without starring or getting much floor time.
How long this can last nobody really knows. The consensus is that Lin is pretty good, however with weaknesses dribbling to his left and on defense, and, of course, dealing with the tremendous athleticism and pounding of the NBA. Not to mention that other teams are now going to send their best against him and the Knicks are perennial losers since the early 1970s, despite some success in the mid-1990s.
Let’s not also forget the reverse racism, the unstated: the NBA is predominantly an African-American’s league, and Lin is not. The most famous quote reflecting this was made in the 1980s, when Isiah Thomas, the outspoken Detroit Pistons guard famously said of Larry Bird that he would just be another great basketball player if he were black, and not “Larry Legend,” the Great White Superstar.
But for now, New York eagerly awaits the second half of this strike shortened season to see if Lin, Anthony, Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, and host of other role players can put together a championship run. If they do, there are still several excellent teams in front of them in the Eastern Conference, such as the Heat, Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, not to mention the Western Conference’s Mavericks and Lakers.
New York loves the Knicks when they win, but is fairly disinterested when they lose, unlike most other New York teams which have sizable and loyal fan bases that support them rain or shine. For now, Lin’s every move gets reported with the biggest story being that he was living on his brother’s couch until stardom earned him a $13,000/month pad in Manhattan with certain unnamed discounts.
