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Former New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony seems to remember Jeremy Lin’s “Linsanity” craze like it was yesterday. Honestly, it does feel like it was that recent.
Anthony spoke about Lin and all of the hoopla that surrounded him back in 2012 during a recent episode of his 7PM In Brooklyn podcast, and he and former Knicks teammate Baron Davis squashed any notion that they were jealous of the attention Lin attracted.
People always talk about the, nobody liked Linsanity, personally me, you get what I’m saying,” Anthony said. “They throw that out there. People don’t know that behind the scenes we were very supportive of this thing.”
Anthony and Davis went on to say that they were trying to help Lin get business deals, but that Lin really didn’t have much interest in it.
“He was like, ‘No I’m not brought up on that, my parents,'” Anthony said. “But I respected that, like I hear that. Matter of fact, bring your parents in here, let us talk to them.”
Anthony added that he felt Linsanity could have been a $100 million venture if Lin would have played his cards right.
Linsanity lasted about two weeks during the 2011-12 campaign, where Lin played like a legitimate All-Star. After that, he cooled down.
Jeremy Lin remained a solid player even after his Knicks days
Funny enough, Lin only played 35 games for the Knicks, as he was forced to undergo knee surgery in April of that season and ended up missing the playoffs as a result. That ensuing summer, he ended up signing with the Houston Rockets in free agency.
While Lin never quite recaptured the magic of his scintillating two-week run in February 2012, he did remain a solid player, averaging 13.4 points and 6.1 assists over 32.2 minutes per game with the Rockets in the 2012-13 campaign.
He spent two years in Houston overall and then bounced around a bit, spending time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors. For most of that time, Lin posted very similar numbers throughout. His best season came with the Nets in 2016-17 when he registered 14.5 points, 5.1 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game on 43.8/37.2/81.6 shooting splits, although he was limited to just 36 games that year due to injuries.
Lin was certainly not an All-Star-caliber player, but he was a good slasher who was solid at drawing contact. He wasn’t a fantastic perimeter shooter, but he made up for it with his quickness and decent ball skills.
The 35-year-old last appeared in the NBA five years ago.
Lin leaves behind one of the more interesting legacies of the last 15-20 years. At the time, New York was starving for success, so Lin’s run brought some excitement back to Madison Square Garden. To this day, people still remember that stretch where Lin was one of the most dominant players in the NBA. His crowning achievement was when he dropped 38 points against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 10 of that year.
During that month of February, Lin averaged 20.9 points, 8.4 assists and four rebounds per game.
We may never see anything like Linsanity ever again.
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