Wednesday, February 15, 2012

LINSANITY TAKES OVER NEW YORK AND THE NBA


Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has become an overnight sensation and just
might be New York's answer at the 1. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Linsanity has taken over New York and it has NBA fans Linsane in the membrane!

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has recently become an overnight sensation following a week that saw him win Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors.

“I don’t know what’s going on in New York right now,” Knicks power forward Amar’e Stoudemire said on MSG Network after Lin’s game-winner Feb. 14 against the Toronto Raptors.

What is going on is that Lin has been what the Knicks needed to run the point guard position and it shows during a six-game winning streak that put New York back in the playoff hunt.

Following Lin’s performance off the bench against the New Jersey Nets on Feb. 4—25 points and seven assists—New York Mark D’Antoni decided to give the Harvard alum a shot.

Some (including myself) saw this as a desperate attempt to save D’Antoni’s job because the Knicks tried this in 16 previous games with Iman Shumpert, while waiting for Baron Davis to get healthy.

Lin responded by averaging 27.3 points and 8.3 assists per game and a 51.3 percentage from the field as a starter during the week of Feb. 6 to Feb. 12.

However, his highlight performance came on Feb. 10 against the Lakers when he scored 38 points and dished seven assists and earned the respect of Kobe Bryant.

Lin spent the 2010-11 season with the Golden State
Warriors, but was released by the team after the NBA lockout.
“Players don’t usually come out of nowhere,” Bryant said. “If you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. But no one ever noticed.”
Lin’s road to NBA stardom has been tough.

As a senior at Palo Alto High School, he won a state title and averaged 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.0 steals. Yet, he chose Harvard because Stanford and UCLA did not guarantee a spot on the team.

After putting up good numbers and leading the Crimson near the NCAA Tournament for first time since 1946, he went undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft but was invited to the Dallas Mavericks’ mini-camp. However, he chose the Golden State Warriors after they offered him a two-year deal.

“We thought when we offered him the one year guaranteed, we felt like he was ours,” Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson said. “But, like I said, there’s no place like home.”

Lin saw limited playing time with the Warriors, but with Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis, it would be very little and they released him. Same for the Houston Rockets, who needed the roster space for Samuel Dalembert.

The Knicks even came close to parting ways with Lin before his performance with the Nets according to Marc Stein.

Now the question turns to how does he jell with Stoudmire and Carmelo Anthony?

With Carmelo Anthony (7) coming back into the mix, the Knicks are
hopeful he and Lin can mesh. (Photo by Nathanial S. Butler/NBAE)
 “I know there’s questions about, ‘Can I fit in?’ and stuff like that, but this is like a dream come true to me,” Anthony said. “It takes some pressure off of me. I don’t have to play point guard. I don’t have to try to get Amar’e 20 points, try to get this guy 20 points, me try to go out there and get 25-30 points a night, play defense, rebound do the whole thing.”

Plus it can only help the team get better and help Lin settle in.

However, the most important thing is that there is a buzz again in New York City about the Knicks—which is always good for the NBA’s biggest market and a premier franchise in the league.

Friday, February 3, 2012

BLAKE GRIFFIN'S DUNK ON KENDRICK PERKINS...AND OTHER POSTER DUNKS!



It's okay Kendrick Perkins, you can come out of the embarrassment of getting dunked on by Los Angeles Clipper forward Blake Griffin.


A day after LeBron James jumped over John Lucas III, Griffin one-upped him and possibly turned in the dunk of the year by making Perkins even madder than he already is. But how does this dunk stack up to others?


I'll give you a few examples of vicious dunks throughout the times. (In no particular order).




BLAKE CREATES THE TERM MOZGOV'ED



In a game against the New York Knicks during the 2010-11 season, Blake Griffin opened everyone's eyes after violating then-Knick center Timofey Mozgov. In my opinion, I think this dunk is more jaw-dropping than the Perkins dunk because of HOW Griffin dunked.


TIM-BER!!



There are so many facial dunks that LeBron James has served up in his career, just ask Damon Jones and Delonte West. However, James' dunk on Tim Duncan was more impressive to me because he made a seven-footer and a future hall-of-famer stumble.


"CRASH" AND BURN


I really love Gerald Wallace and the way that he approaches the game by playing hard and leaving it all out on the court. However, then-Hornet rookie Marcus Thornton completely turned poor Crash into a poster.

KOBE WELCOMES DWIGHT TO THE ASSOCIATION


Before Kobe Bryant wore No. 24, he wore No. 8. Before Dwight Howard was a perennial lock for Defensive Player of the year, he was a young star in the making. Not saying that this dunk changed things but...

LIKE TAKING "KANDI" FROM A BABY


What's more impressive: Amar'e Stoudemire's dunk on Michael Olowokandi OR Stephon Marbury's reaction? The answer: Yes.

DUNKS ARE BIGGER IN TEXAS


Poor Shawn Bradley. He has been put on so many a poster during his career. However, when Tracy McGrady dunked on him in Game 2 of the 2005 Western Conference Quarters between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks, Bradley left the game at the end of the season.

LISTER BLISTER


Alton Lister...meet Shawn Kemp. And the Power of Reign.

GOING TO WAR WITH AN AK-47


After becoming the second team to upset a No. 1 seed, the Golden State Warriors found themselves down 2-0 to the Utah Jazz in the 2007 Western Conference Semis. But Baron Davis would not allow the Warriors to go down without making some noise.

SCOTTIE!


The Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks gave us the best NBA rivalry in the 90s with so many playoff wars. In the 1994 East Semis you could still see and feel the animosity after Scottie Pippen scaled Patrick Ewing and talked trash to the fallen Ewing and Spike Lee.

THE DURANTULA STRIKES!


In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzki both reached the 40-point mark, but Dallas won behind Dirk's classic shooting performance. In Game 2, Durant went strong on Brendan Haywood and posterized him.

CHARGING BULL


Yet, four days before, Taj Gibson had the statement dunk of the 2011 Playoffs with his dunk on Dwyane Wade in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Gibson would follow that up with the parting shot to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead in the series.

ROCK-A-BYE BABY


In the 1982-83 season, the Philadelphia 76ers were flat out dominant with a 65-17 record. One of those wins came in this game when Julius Erving dunked on Michael Cooper. The Sixers would win NBA title, only losing one game in the playoffs.

JUMPED THE WEIS


Le dunk de la mort. That French phrase is translated to "The Dunk of Death" and this dunk in the 2000 Summer Olympics by USA's Vince Carter over France's Frederic Weis did exactly that to Weis' NBA chances. Weis—who was taken by the New York Knicks in the 1999 NBA Draft at No. 15—never played in the NBA.


Feel free to share one that I may have missed!