UPDATED: February 13, 2012, at 1:19 a.m.
Over the past ten days, Harvard graduate and new NBA basketball sensation Jeremy Lin '10 has become a hotshot point guard for the New York Knicks, averaging 26.8 points in the team's last five games and dominating nationwide sports headlines.
For those out there who are interested in Lin, but haven't been consistently following the headlines, Flyby is here to lay out his path to success, from his trackrecord at Harvard to his splashing debut with the New York Knicks.
Lin was a standout on the Harvard basketball team, averaging 16.4 points per game his senior year and becoming the first Ivy League player to rack up at least 1,450 career points, 450 career rebounds, 400 career assists, and 200 career steals. He chose to play at Harvard when no Division I schools offered him an athletic scholarship coming out of high school.
Despite his standout Ivy League performance, Lin went undrafted at the 2010 NBA draft but was picked up by the Dallas Mavericks to play for the summer league squad. After turning heads with his impressive summer showing, Lin signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors, the team closest to his hometown of Palo Alto, Calif. Following a year in which he averaged 2.6 points per game, he was cut in December, 2011. His NBA career was extended when he signed a new contract with the Houston Rockets, but before the season began he was let go. On Dec. 27, 2011 he was picked up by the New York Knicks.
Lin's breakout performance occurred on Feb. 4 when he scored 25 points off the bench against the New Jersey Nets. He started the subsequent four games, helping to lead the Knicks to victory over the Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Nobody in NBA history has scored as many points in his first four starts. In addition to being the first Harvard player in the NBA since 1954 and the first Ivy-Leaguer in the NBA since 2003, Lin is the first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA and only the fourth Asian American in NBA league history.
For extensive J-Lin coverage, check out The Crimson's sports blog, The Back Page.