Linsanity

< Older Entries

Sorry Brooklyn, Spike Lee Sticks With Knicks

August 4, 2012  ·  1:20PM

by Micah Hart



When the Knicks infamously declined to match the Rockets’ offer for Jeremy Lin, bringing the Linsanity era in New York City to a screeching halt, many began to wonder if residents of the Big Apple had finally had enough of the team’s bumbling ways and would consider jumping ship to root for the Nets. After all, Brooklyn is the trendy spot, Jay-Z is a part owner, and they’ve shown a similar ability to throw gaudy contracts at players without blinking an eyelash.

One person we won’t see making that trade any time soon, despite his Brooklyn heritage, is Knicks’ superfan Spike Lee.

In an interview with the New York Times this weekend, Lee discussed whether he’d considered the change, and made his position crystal clear:

“I wish I had a dollar for every time people ask me that — I could finance another film,” he says. “No, no and no. Can’t do that. Can’t.

“I am orange and blue, baby,” he says in reference to the colors of the Knicks. “Orange and blue.”

Though Lee has set many of his best films in his native borough, including his upcoming release “Red Hook Summer”, he maintains his allegiance to the Knicks, even with the firestorm set off by Lin’s departure. And though he maintains his loyalty, Lee made clear he’s not happy with the team’s prolonged lack of success either:

“Look, I hope Carmelo Anthony saw LeBron holding that championship trophy. Amar’e’s my man. But I’m tired of looking up at those old championship banners.

“No lollygagging, no half-stepping, no shenanigans, no tomfoolery. Got to get serious, got to.”

Lee’s loyalty is impressive, especially considering the vitriol being directed towards the Knicks’ ownership and management team over the summer. But if the Knicks continue to fall short of expectations while seeing their new neighbors achieve success in Brooklyn, you have to wonder if Spike is doing the right thing.

[Spike Lee to Stick With His Knicks]

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Linsanity / Comments (12) /

Live Blogging The First Annual Social Media Awards

June 20, 2012  ·  9:12PM

by Micah Hart

We’re live on NBATV with Shaq, Rick Fox, Lang Whitaker, and Tas Melas and J.E. Skeets from The Basketball Jones for the first ever Social Media Awards. Lots of good stuff to get through in this hour-long special celebrating the most viral, most talked about teams, players and performances from the 2011-12 season. Let’s get rolling!

9:05 – Jeremy Lin takes home the first social media award, for Epic performance from his breakout game against the Lakers. In case you forgot how that went down, take a peek:



9:08 – The Lakers, not surprisingly, win the Social MVT (Most Valuable Team), far outpacing the #2 ranked squad the Boston Celtics. Judging by the comments sections on the NBA.com blogs, this is not a surprise victory. KOBE RULEZ! TAKE THAT HATERZ!

9:15 – Skeets and Tas present the Snapshot Award for best tweeted picture. And the winner is … Landry Fields, who tweeted a picture of the couch Lin crashed on during the early part of his tenure with the Knicks. Another Lin-related victory … I’m sensing a theme starting here. One of the nominees for this award was a picture Kevin Love tweeted of his mustache, but I would also have nominated the picture Ricky Rubio tweeted of Love’s shave and a haircut — who is that guy?

(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Linsanity, Uncategorized / Comments (3) /

Knicks May Be Losing, But Linsanity Still Lives In Fruit Roll Up Form

May 3, 2012  ·  11:51PM

by Micah Hart

So maybe this postseason isn’t for the Knicks. But hey, at least someone made Jeremy Lin a replica of his jersey made entirely out of Fruit Roll-Ups. That’s something, right?

From Lin’s Twitter feed, by way of Posting and Toasting:

Given the way this postseason is turning out, I have a feeling someone on the Knicks (A’mare, cough) ends up eating the entire thing while sobbing uncontrollably.

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Linsanity, NBA Playoffs 2012 / Comments (3) /

Linsanity makes Time’s 100

April 18, 2012  ·  10:04PM

by Zettler Clay

The fervor behind him has died a little, but be not mistaken, Jeremy Lin remains as pervasive a name as they come. Today, we got another reminder as he was named by Time as one of The 100 Most Influential People in the World. U.S. Secretary of Education — and avid hooper — Arne Duncan hails that Lin’s arrival “debunks and defangs so many of the prejudices and stereotypes that unfairly hold children back”:

It’s great to see good values rewarded in professional sports because that’s not always the case. Often it’s the bling, the glam, the individual that gets celebrated — not the team and working together to advance a goal bigger than oneself. Jeremy cares only about one thing — winning. And I don’t care whether you are an Asian-American kid, white, black or Hispanic, Jeremy’s story tells you that if you show grit, discipline and integrity, you too can get an opportunity to overcome the odds.

You won’t get any argument here. Lin’s ascendance and international reverberation has been covered ad nauseum, but inspiration never gets old. No matter how many ways you slice it, we’ve been better for the few games this hitherto unknown took Madison Square Garden and the Association by storm.

And as a bonus, Lin penned Tim Tebow’s introduction in the same list.


Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Linsanity / Comments (15) /

Lin, Fields Give Handshake Tutorial

March 19, 2012  ·  9:30AM

by Micah Hart

A few weeks back we linked to a how-to infograph on how to execute Jeremy Lin and Landry Fields‘ pre-game handshake. It was humorous and informative, but it was just an illustration. Some people are learn better with video than audio, which is why we are fortunate Lin and Fields took it upon themselves to show you how it’s done themselves:

Try it at home, kids.

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Linsanity / Comments (2) /

Yay All-Star And All, But What About Lin?

February 27, 2012  ·  3:13PM

by Micah Hart



In case you were thinking the NBA, its fans and its media had become incapable of paying attention to anything other than Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks, I hope All-Star Weekend put that notion to rest. Lin made an appearance Friday night in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, but that aside the weekend was mostly Lin free. I say that not to complain or to be smug — just to note that when Lin is not part of the storyline we all seemed capable of avoiding trying to shoehorn him into it.

Having said that … with all of our attention on Orlando, there were a few Lin-related items that slipped through the cracks, and now that we are back to regularly scheduled programming, here’s a rundown:

I think that about catches us up for now. At least for the next few hours.

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in All-Star, Linsanity / Comment (1) /

Before Linsanity, Jeremy Lin Couldn’t Even Win at Horse

February 23, 2012  ·  6:35PM

by Micah Hart

I love this video from Jeremy Lin‘s time with the Warriors — which seems like years ago at this point but was actually just last season — when he was just a rookie and therefore had to agree to participate in silly contests against random people. Like playing a game of P-I-G against these two guys:

Yeah, Lin loses, but it seems clear he’s just horsing around (see what I did there?) with his competitors. I’d like to see them win if they had to do this.

By the way, if you have still yet to have your fill of Lin-ness, you can vote to have the cameras focus entirely on him on TNT Overtime during tonight’s Heat-Knicks game. I just checked, and he currently has 71% of the votes for the first quarter, so I like his chances of being featured. You’re already going to be watching the game anyway, might as well add this into the mix!

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Linsanity / No Comments /

Jeremy Lin Joins Short List of NBA Players on SI Cover Twice In a Row

February 22, 2012  ·  6:14PM

by Micah Hart

Jeremy Lin‘s performance so far has been nearly unprecedented, as has been the hype surrounding him. So perhaps it’s not a huge leap to see him on the cover of Sports Illustrated two straight weeks:
Given the attention he’s received, it’s really not all that surprising to me. SI is covering the news of the day, and frankly, his story has dominated pretty much continuously for two solid weeks.

There is historical precedence for Lin — as Mike Hayes pointed out at Buzzfeed, Michael Jordan was on the cover three straight weeks in 1991 and 1998, while just last year Dirk Nowitzki was featured consecutively during the NBA Finals.

The interesting thing to note is that both MJ and Dirk had their runs during the playoffs, while Lin has gotten two straight during the middle of a season (take that, Tebow!). Impressive stuff, and again I’ll say I don’t know how much longer it will last, but I don’t much care, either. Just enjoying the ride.

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Linsanity / No Comments /

Three For All: New Jersey Nets II

February 21, 2012  ·  9:19PM

by Micah Hart



As everyone knows by now, the compressed NBA schedule will force every team to play three games in three nights at least one this season (42 times in total). With only 66 games to stake a claim to a playoff spot or seed, how teams perform during these killer slates could have a large impact on how their seasons turn out.

With that in mind, we’re going to keep track of each of the 42 three-plays to see which teams take advantage and which teams fall apart. Up next, the New Jersey Nets, who played three straight from Feb. 18-20.

This hasn’t been the best season for the Nets. In a season full of injuries, they’ve been perhaps the most afflicted, suiting up the minimum eight healthy bodies for several games. They put up only 2 points in their first three for all challenge, and that is mainly because they got to play one of the only teams worse than they are. Playing this threeplay would be just leading lambs to the slaughter, right?

Game 1: Nets 97, Bulls 85 - Say what? Yeah that’s right. The Nets, behind 29 points from Deron Williams and a huge 24 and 18 rebounds from the guy you love to hate, Kris Humphries, came into the United Center and put it on the Bulls, jumping out to a 34-19 lead after one and never looking back. The Bulls were without Derrick Rose, but still — they’d only lost one home game all season before this spanking. Didn’t see this one coming. 3 points (1 for win, 1 for road, 1 for +10 margin)

Game 2: Bucks 92, Nets 85 - Naturally, after the road win in Chicago, the Nets returned to New Jersey and promptly lost to the Bucks, despite the season debut for center Brook Lopez (nine points and two rebounds in 12 minutes) Game ball goes to Bucks F Ersan Ilyasova, who had perhaps the most surprising stat line of the season with 29 points and 25 rebounds — and fouled out as well! -1 point

Game 3: Nets 100, Knicks 92 - Oh sure, the Nets go right into Madison Square Garden, overcome Linsanity and the return of Carmelo Anthony to drop the Knicks, who had only won eight of their last nine coming in. Makes perfect sense. I gotta say, people were dogging on D-Will for getting an All-Star nod, but let’s not forget how freakin’ talented this dude is. A career-high eight 3-pointers and a season-best 38 points stole the show in this one. 6 points (5 for win, 1 for road)

No question about it, this is the surprise result of the season in the three for all. 8 points for the Nets, impressive regardless but especially so considering who they beat. Tip o’ the cap.

Up next: The New Orleans Hornets play three straight Feb. 20-22.

Three for all Top Ten:
– Miami Heat (15 points)
– Chicago Bulls (13 points)
– OKC Thunder (12 points)
– New Jersey Nets II (8 points)
– Atlanta Hawks (8 points)
– Houston Rockets (7 points)
– Portland Trail Blazers (6 points)
– L.A. Clippers (6 points)
– Philadelphia 76ers (6 points)
– Denver Nuggets I (6 points)

Full Three for all standings

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Linsanity, Three for all / No Comments /

How To Execute Jeremy Lin and Landry Fields’ Pregame Handshake

February 20, 2012  ·  4:52PM

by Micah Hart

Jeremy Lin has made himself a home with the Knicks, and if you need proof of that (aside from you know, his ridiculous performance over the past two weeks), I give you his pregame handshake with Landry Fields:

Wondering how to execute such a complex maneuver? Here is a step-by-step guide, courtesy of @IamaGM by way of @SportsGrid:

Remember to seal it with a pat kids, or the whole thing is invalidated.

Seen something that belongs on All Ball? Let us know via email or Twitter.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Linsanity / Comment (1) /

< Older Entries