The last time the New Jersey Nets faced the New York Knicks, both New York metropolitan area NBA teams were terrible. It was Saturday, February 4th., the day before the Super Bowl. New York City was full of football fanatics anticipating the Giants match up against the New England Patriots. The Nets had a 8-16 record while the Knicks were 8-15 and fans wanted coach Mike D’Antoni fired. Few people really cared about the Knicks outside New York. Fewer people cared or even heard of Knicks backup guard Jeremy Lin.
The Knicks won that night 99-92 thanks to Lin’s surprising effort off the bench. In nearly 36 minutes, Lin scored then a career-high 25 points and 7 assists in New York’s win. Since then, Lin, born in America but of Taiwanese heritage, has become an international superstar as he’s led the New York Knicks on a run of 8 wins in 9 games. TV ratings locally in New York and nationally for Knicks national TV games have skyrocketed to astronomical numbers.
You can’t watch television or go outside without not hearing about Lin. While Jeremy speaks in a quiet manner just happy to help his team win, fans and news reporters have gone wild and over-the-top in their excitement and disappointment. At ESPN, one anchor was suspended a month while a headline editor was fired for using the term “Chink in the Armor”. “Chink” is known as a racial slur used toward Asians. A Fox Sports writer had to issue a public apology after sending out a tweet on Twitter asking if Lin’s increased popularity was due to his race. Meanwhile, sports media critics are encouraging more coverage of Lin using his story as an unknown guy’s rise to stardom as a reason. Linsanity filled millions of people’s brains.
On Monday night, the Nets finally put some sanity back into the Jeremy Lin phenomenon. New Jersey sent New York to its second loss in the last three games. While Lin did not have a bad game with 21 points and 9 assists, he was severely outplayed by Deron Williams. Williams lit up Lin and the Knicks for 38 points on 10 of 22 field goals including eight three-pointers . It seemed Williams took it as a personal challenge. He was dominated by Lin in their first matchup and wanted to prove everybody wrong this time.
The Nets won 100-92, they were the New York-New Jersey metropolitan NBA team everybody was talking about. The Knicks shared the spotlight. Jeremy Lin wasn’t the point guard who was trending on Twitter. Deron Williams owned the night. This time, reporters asked Lin why he couldn’t stop Williams. The Knicks were looked as an ordinary team which has setbacks though a long season. The Nets were viewed as a talented group which has underachieved for most of this shortened NBA campaign. New Jersey beat Chicago, one of the top teams in the East on Saturday. However, they did that without facing Derrick Rose, last year’s NBA MVP. Monday, the Nets brought sanity back to the basketball world when they beat the Knicks and Jeremy Lin.
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