l*****9
发帖数: 9501 | 1 Requiem for a LinBy Will Leitch Facebook Twitter ShareThis Counter Email We
probably should have been more suspicious of Jeremy Lin's knee injury than
we were. For the past week or so, we didn't blink when coach Mike Woodson
said "if" Lin comes back, when the Knicks kept Lin away from the press for a
few days, when Lin was being scratched from the lineup earlier and earlier
each day. We guess we just didn't want to believe it. But it's true: Jeremy
Lin isn't coming back.
Some frayed knee cartilage is what ultimately ended Linsanity, and we won't
see him again this season unless the Knicks somehow win a first-round
playoff series, assuming, of course, they actually make the playoffs. (Which
is far from assured.) We could lament the injury frustrations, the now-
gaping-again point-guard-hole, the fact that we're gonna spend the last
month of the season watching Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Baron Davis
running isolations every time down the court, but there will be plenty of
time for that. Right now, we just want to reflect on what we have lost.
We've been covering sports for New York Magazine for almost four years now,
and Linsanity, without question, was our favorite story to cover. For those
loopy, ascendant two weeks — and it was essentially a fortnight, starting
on February 4 against New Jersey and peaking with that February 19 win over
Dallas on national television — we had everything you could possibly want
from an athletic endeavor. We had the "new": A scrappy kid coming out of
nowhere. We had the "underdog": Ignored, undrafted, and left for dead in the
D-League, Lin was proof that talent can be found (and missed) anywhere. We
had the "inspiration": An Asian-American kid succeeding on his own terms in
the grandest possible way. We had the "giddy novelty": He went to Harvard ..
. and did you see that pregame handshake?
The best part, to our mind, was that Lin was tough. We don't just mean the
crunch-time mettle, though he of course had that in abundance; post-surgery,
you could put him out on crutches and we'd still probably want him taking
the last shot. We mean that he was physically punished every game —
particularly once he became the focal point of every opponent's defensive
strategy — with consistent bashes across the head and neck. Lin seemed to
get at least one bloody nose a game ... and yet he never stopped driving the
lane, and he never stopped getting back up. Lin was absolutely fearless.
Maybe to make it to this level in so unlikely a fashion ... maybe you have
to be.
Lin made the Knicks come to life, but what he did to the Garden was even
more thrilling. Knicks fans have been so desperate for something to cheer
for in the post-Isiah era that they've been willing to talk themselves into
anything, from Chris Duhon to Anthony Randolph to, more recently, the
pretend-land game that Carmelo Anthony was a lifelong New Yorker who just
selflessly wanted to return home. They have waited because, when it is
humming, when it is connecting with the city in a viral, subconscious way,
no sport in this city is as great as basketball when the Knicks are winning,
when the Knicks matter. Much of this fan hope has been unwarranted and
unrequited; after all, the Knicks still haven't won a playoff game since
April 29, 2001. There's a reason much of the rest of the NBA hates Knicks
fans. Knicks fans are so famished for success, for something to cheer about,
that they can sometimes take up a disproportionate chunk of the league's
psychic energy.
But Lin, Lin was different. Lin wasn't some sort of Jim Dolan hype-creation,
a Faustian bargain, the best we could do so we might as well cheer. Lin was
entirely ours, a sudden creation, a firestorm that somehow lived outside
the normal Knicks dysfunction. We were discovering Lin, and he was feeding
off Knicks fans — and the Garden frenzy — as much as they were feeding off
him. Nobody fired up the Garden like this kid. Even after Mike D'Antoni
left and some of the shine was inevitably rusted by MSG madness, and of
course Carmelo, Lin didn't go away. He secured himself as the team's top
point guard and one of its most important players, fitting in and improving
the team even when Carmelo demanded the ball in the post and Smith was
chucking three-pointers while falling out of bounds and Dolan was making
announcements to the press and then slumping out of the room, like always.
And he was smiling all the way, a beacon of normalcy, sanity, and joy amidst
the typical Knicks chaos.
Lin was special. And it made us all feel special. It made us all feel lucky
to get to watch it.
Lin may return this year, and he'll probably return next year — the Knicks
would be fools not to match any offer for him, for marketing reasons alone
— and we'll have more great Lin moments. But we will never forget those
glorious two weeks, when the best story in sports was happening right here,
when we had our own superstar emerge, in front of our eyes, in the best
possible way. This isn't how it was supposed to end. But then again, it's
not over. | w******t
发帖数: 1929 | | A****n
发帖数: 1367 | 3 tooo long,,,
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【在 l*****9 的大作中提到】
: Requiem for a LinBy Will Leitch Facebook Twitter ShareThis Counter Email We
: probably should have been more suspicious of Jeremy Lin's knee injury than
: we were. For the past week or so, we didn't blink when coach Mike Woodson
: said "if" Lin comes back, when the Knicks kept Lin away from the press for a
: few days, when Lin was being scratched from the lineup earlier and earlier
: each day. We guess we just didn't want to believe it. But it's true: Jeremy
: Lin isn't coming back.
: Some frayed knee cartilage is what ultimately ended Linsanity, and we won't
: see him again this season unless the Knicks somehow win a first-round
: playoff series, assuming, of course, they actually make the playoffs. (Which
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