How Undrafted NBA Player Became Linsanity

We're in Madison Square Garden and the Knicks are a terrible team. They're struggling. Their stars Carmelo Anthony and Mary Stodamayer are out. They have no answer at point guard. Injuries have decimated the team and they're facing the nets and they need someone to play. So in checks this twenty three year old Asian American from Harvard, undrafted on a ten day contract. Nobody expects anything, and he does the unthinkable. He explodes for twenty five points, bringing the team down from ten to win in a stunner, leading fans to love this player, and eventually the phrase linsanity will become common the whole United States as this becomes a fifteenth minute of fame that lasts for a few weeks and tragically comes crashing down to earth. But it was one everyone loved to see. An underdog makes good. Join us today as we dive into linsanity, but before the during, in the after today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide because I had to research this whole episode hearing this song in my head the entire time. Virtual it seventies, well, well, living in You're welcome nineties one hit Wonders Lovers. So who is Jeremy Lynn? Okay, So he was born in California to Taiwanese immigrants, so he was an Asian American. Now, there have not been a lot of Asian athletes to actually participate in the NBA, most notably Wasn't Yeoman, but there's only been sprinkled in a few others. So basketball was not huge for the Asian community, but he wasn't. He grew up in California and he loved the game of basketball. He picked it up at the local YMCA, and despite having racial stereotypes thrown in on him as a five to three freshman in high school, he was able to start for his varsity team, and he would end up his senior year leading Palo Alto High to a thirty two to one record, winning the Division two state title, being the nor Cow player of the Year. Now, he grew up to be about six to two, so he wasn't super small, but nobody was offering him scholarships despite the success he was having. May have been a stereotype thing. Maybe Rosie too small, Maybe I don't know. Stanford and cal Local Universities offered him an option to walk on. But at that point he was like, well, why don't I just go to the best school in the country walk on there? And that was Harvard. See he wasn't just a good athlete, he was a good student as well. He was able to enroll in Harvard and join their basketball team there. Now, Harvard, even though they are Division One, they are in the IVY League and the IVY League. The reason why they're not a power conference like they used to be. If you look at all the beginnings of sports, it's all IVY League winners. Well, that changed when scholarships started to come into place, as the IVY League does not offer scholarships, so they're facing Division one talent but struggling because they don't have scholarships. As a former Division III coach, this is very hard to recruit, and especially at a institute where higher learning is priority. You have to find someone smart and that wants to actually pay for college. Those are two things that are very hard to do. And he would go on to become a three time All IVY First Team point guard, leading the Crimson to back to back IVY League titles and their first NCAA appearance since nineteen forty six. He would average his senior year seventeen almost eighteen points in five assists, enough to get noticed, but not enough for scouts to really think he was anything good. They questioned is athletic ability and the IVY League competition. He goes undrafted, but he wants to continue playing basketball. This isn't uncommon, lots of players do this. So after the draft, he was able to sign a summer league deal with the Golden State Warriors, and he played so good in Summer League, especially in a dominant game versus the number one pick overall that year. John Wall in twenty ten that he was able to get a two way contract. Now, a two way contract means that he can play a little bit in the NBA and also play in the developmenttal League at the time, or the G League as we know it today. And he was limited twenty nine game in the NBA that year, averaging about four minutes a game, and was sitting down to the D League where he really kind of was able to show his abilities there and really balled out in the D League. Unfortunately, in two thousand and eleven there was a lockout and just made things a lot harder to find a job. As he only had a one year contract, so after that contract was up and the lockout was over, he was able to sign a contract with Houston Rockets, who needed a point guard, but they even up waving for another player, and the Knicks ended up signing him December twenty seven, twenty eleven, as they were decimated with injuries at point guard and he came in as kind of the fourth string break glass in case of emergency point guard, and he would also spend time at their development league where he was doing pretty good. Then he finally got called up and on February fourth, twenty twelve, against the New Jersey Nets, he showed something special. He came in off the bench and scored twenty five points, shooting over fifty percent from the field, having seven assists, five rebounds, and two steals to go along with those points. And the Nets were playoff team, they were able to come back. He started out pretty slow in the second quarter with six points three assists, but a lot he gave to center Tyson Chandler tied the game and really led them into the second half, and really the Nets had no answer. They didn't know who this kid was. He was quick, quicker than expected. He had good ball handles, and he was a driver. He could drive the lane where no one could stop him or keep up with him, and he was able to dish out when needed and score at will. And injured teammate Carmel Anthony suggested to Mike D'Antoni, the coach of the Knicks at the time, Hey, we should keep Jeremy Lynn in there. He's the only one providing our team offense and that's what really led them in the second half to win the game. The next game would be the first start in Jeremy Lynn's career where they faced off against Utah and he would have twenty eight points and eight assists in a win, giving them two straight wins without their stars Mario Soaremier and Carmelo Anthony, and everyone was starting to take note of this player. They were playing against the Washington Wizards, who Jeremy Lynn had had success against John Wall in Summer League back when they were rookies, and he again had a great game, having twenty three points anten assists, his first double double of his career. So the news media was starting to take notice. The phrase Lynsanity was starting to develop. But on February tenth, at Madison's Square Garden, the New York Knicks were facing off against the La Lakers and Jerrymy Lynn was starting again against Kobe, A great defender, a great player. Jeremy Lynn made it look like it was anyone else, because he erupted for thirty eight points and seven assists, leading him to ninety two to eighty five victory versus the Lakers, outscoring Kobe, who had thirty four points, and by this time the New York Times was taking notice, saying this was the Knicks' grandest stroke of fortune since they won the lottery to draft Patrick Ewing. The following day, they had faced off against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynn would have twenty points and eight assists while making the go ahead free throw with five seconds left to win the game. He was named Eastern Conference Players, averaging twenty seven points, eight assists, and two steals in his four starts with the Knicks, and the Knicks were undefeated in all for those games, and in February fourteenth, with less than his second remaining in the game, Jeremy Lynn hit a game winner against the Toronto Raptors, a three pointer from the top of the key, giving them the win. In the moment, Linsanity was officially established. Everyone thought this guy was amazing and could do no wrong. Lind Sanity was shouted at the Raptors Hall of Fame and all stars alike were amazed by what he was doing. He became the first player to score at least twenty points and have seven assists in each of his first five starts in the NBA. And because he was an Asian American, this was a global thing. China loved basketball. We found this out with Yabing and he out brought a new audience to the NBA. And this audience gravitated to Jeremy Lynn. Even though he was not Chinese, he was Taiwanese and American. It didn't matter. They just loved seeing an Asian player having success in the NBA. But unfortunately, it all came crumbling down on February twenty second versus the Miami Heat, where Lynn finally faltered, shooting one for eleven and a loss to Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, breaking the seven game win streak, his streak of scoring over twenty points and what happened, well, honest, the Stars came back the previous game against the Cavs, Carmelo Anthony joined back the team from injury. You want your star player to play, and he likes to hold the ball up, which was something that was adverse to Jeremy Lynn. Jeremy Lyn worked best with the ball in his hand and distributing and running the show, but Carmelo Anthony wanted to do that and this became a frustration with him. And when Amari Snamyer came back, as both these star players wanted their points, won the ball in their hands and they didn't want to give it up to Jeremy Lynn. So after they had this great streak of insanity, they went two and six. When the stars started to come back and dan Toni had actually had enough. He saw what success he could have without stars with Jeremy Lynn, a guy that nobody knew coming off the streets living on his brother's couch in Chinatown at the time, So on March fourteenth, he resigned, really creating a tension with the team. For the rest of the time, Insanity had started to die down. Everyone loved the story, but it quickly faded from the consciousness of everybody going on and on March twenty four, twenty fifteen, Lynn collapsed after a chess contusion versus the Kings. Initially no concern, but then Mr Rai showed a partial tear in his left the tel attendant sighlighting him for the playoffs, and the Knicks fell in the playoffs as a seventh seed to the Miami But what came next was a craziness because everyone still remembered lindsanity. He was a popular guy, He was a charismatic guy. People loved his story, and he was basically a free agent after that, so in the summer of twenty twelve, he was a restricted free agent. Now, a restricted free agent means that the team that you were previously on can match anything that anyone else offers you. You can get an offer from anybody, but they have the option to match, so you're a quasi free agent. Most likely you'll go back to Most restrictive free agents go back to their previous team unless they get a crazy offer. And the Knicks actually encouraged Lind to seek other offers, and he did, but everyone expected the Knicks to re sign him no matter what the offer was. But the Rockets offered something no one expected at the time, they offered twenty eight point eight million dollars over four years, and the Knicks said they were going to match that offer. So the Rockets a revised three year, twenty five million dollars deal, which means he'd just been making just a little under just about nine million dollars a year, which would have put him just about in the top fifty salaries in the NBA at the time. A guy that just started in the mid season had never had a true NBA contract. Everyone thought it was ridiculous, and so the Knicks they didn't match the deal. Instead, they signed Raymond Felton, and the Rockets were excited. They got this new point guard to lead their team. And he actually played and started eighty two games that first year, but he didn't show the insanity that we saw. He averaged thirteen points, six assists in about one and a half steals. He averaged about the same the following year, though he only started thirty three games and lost favor in Houston, and he would eventually go bounce around to a few teams here and there, playing a little bit, but wouldn't really find the success that he had had previously. Although he was on the Toronto Raptors team that won the title in twenty nineteen, so he does have an NBA ring, but he didn't play in the finals at all, and that would be the last time he'd actually play in the NBA. Now. After this, he would go on to play for a couple of China League teams as he was a fan favorite there, but he kind of just fizzled out of the NBA to kind of just be a forgotten story, even though he was the main headline for almost a month in not only the NBA but frankly all news media. And now he's still kind of in the basketball world doing random YouTube videos popping up here and there, but really just kind of living a quiet life. As he announced he had a son and was living the dad life, and honestly, if he walked down the street, most of us probably wouldn't even notice. This guy made headlines and had a sensation around him that broke the news world. Just shows you enjoy that fifteen minute of fame. That fifteen minutes he had made him millions of dollars to set him up for the rest of his life. It may not been the career he wanted, but he at least made his dream come true of making it to the NBA, showing that he belonged. I want to thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History. It means a lot to me that you took your time to listen. If you could take the time to also subscribe and follow wherever you're at. That way, you do not miss a single episode, and we will see you on the next one. By