By: Mitchell Paul

Too often in the madness that is the sports world, we, as fans, don’t receive the level of passion that we expect and deserve from athletes on our favorite teams.

For the most part, one can tell how immersed the players are in a game. Do they make the extra effort to dive to the floor for the loose ball? Do they congratulate their teammates after a well-run play or a solid base hit? Are they frustrated after a turnover and work to communicate with their teammates to ensure that mistake is rectified?

Whether because of a sense of comfort within the organization, money, fame, or a laundry list of other reasons, players seem to be lacking excitement for the game they call their job.

Of course there are exceptions. The elite of the sports world understand what it means to provide that effort on a daily basis.

But more and more, that passion seems to be run in stick shift rather than automatic transmission. It’s as if that excitement and energy can be turned on and off, depending on the circumstances of the game or even the season.

Every once in a while, however, there is a player or a team that defies the odds. In this year’s shortened NBA season, this has been apparent in none other than Jeremy Lin.

By now ,we know all about Lin’s background, about how he was undrafted out of Harvard, was living on his brother’s couch, and how he was previously cut from two different NBA teams. He has overcome people telling him he wasn’t good enough, including Stanford (close to his original home in Palo Alto, CA) who didn’t even offer him a scholarship.

Now, he’s proving his critics wrong. And he’s doing it through exciting, fresh-legged point guard play in Knicks’ head coach Mike D’Antoni’s point guard-friendly offense.

The script couldn’t have been produced any better. Lin was thrust into the starting role on a team destined for mediocrity in the hapless Eastern Conference.

All he’s done is average 27 points through his first six games, then set a career-high 13 assists in his seventh.

All he’s done is….Lin (sorry, I had to get that out of my system).

Oh and I forgot to mention he’s doing all of this in one of the basketball capitals of the world, New York.

What makes the rise of Jeremy Lin from 12th man to household name even sweeter is the way he plays the game.

He plays with a chip on his shoulder. He plays with heart and zeal. And yet, there’s also a sense of calmness when Lin handles the Knicks’ offense, a sense of control unseen in most players with such little NBA experience.

He also plays the game with respect and integrity, thanking those who have put him in the position to succeed and an opportunity to prove his doubters wrong.

To the fans of this maddening sports world, the Jeremy Lin story is refreshing. It’s a positive aberration, one that we want so badly to continue throughout the season and for years to come.

 

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