Linsanity: Jeremy Lin's rise to stardom
April 7, 2013 4:05 PMHarvard-educated Jeremy Lin shot from obscurity to stardom to become one of the few Asians to play professional basketball in the NBA. His sudden rise and stellar play inspired the catchword "Linsanity" and won him fans around the world. Charlie Rose reports.
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The following is a script from "Linsanity" which aired on April 7, 2013. Charlie Rose is the correspondent. Pete Radovich, producer.
There aren't many basketball stars who step off the bench and directly into the dictionary, but that's what happened last season when a third-string guard for the New York Knicks named Jeremy Lin spawned something so new, so crazy, so outside the realm of rational explanation that it demanded its own word: Linsanity.
For a few weeks, the entire professional basketball world was in the throes of this Harvard educated Asian-American who battled his way through racial stereotypes to become a shooting star.
Charlie Rose: As one New Yorker, let me tell you what you did for the city. It was a magical time. You know? And Madison Square Garden, at that moment, was what it was intended to be.
Jeremy Lin: Well, I appreciate that.
[Sports announcer: Look who's coming in.]
Jeremy Lin was the twelfth man on a slumping, injury-riddled 12-man team, last season when the New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni put him into the game, and into basketball history.
[Sports announcer: Lin to the basket, reverse lay up, he puts it in. What a play for Jeremy Lin. Gets to the rim, puts it in, and a foul. Wow.]
Charlie Rose: 25 points, 7 assists, and a Knick victory. Then, he did it again in the next game: 28 points, 8 assists. And then again.
Jeremy Lin: That stretch, that was the most fun that I've ever had in my life.
Charlie Rose: That's what athletes want, one to one with the fans, playing at their best, in a place that is a cathedral.
Jeremy Lin: I agree.
[Reporter: Can you believe this is happening to you?
Jeremy Lin: No.]
And New Yorkers were swept into an epidemic of Linsanity. His name was unavoidable in the papers, magazine covers and in the stands.
[Jeremy Lin: I didn't know you could turn Lin into so many things.]
League officials like Commissioner David Stern knew a good thing when they saw it, even if they had trouble understanding just what it was.
David Stern: We couldn't even figure it out. We couldn't get enough Jeremy Lin material in the NBA store fast enough. And when we did, it was just gone in minutes.
Charlie Rose: You've never seen anything like it?
David Stern: No, but we enjoyed it.
On the February night Lin came off the bench, jerseys with his name and number 17 did not even exist. Now, they were the hottest-selling items in all sports.
About the only person who seemed unaware of the frenzy was the Los Angeles Lakers' star, Kobe Bryant.
[Sports announcer: Jeremy Lin, are you following that story at all?
Kobe Bryant: No idea. I know who he is, but I don't really know what's going on too much with that. I don't even know what he's done. I've got no idea what you guys are talking about.]
But Bryant's feigned detachment ended before a national television audience. Just a few games removed from being a basketball nonentity, Lin rang up 38 points embarrassing Kobe and the Lakers.
[Sports announcer: Lin likes the open floor, spinning, puts it up and banks it in, sensational play for Jeremy Lin.]
Jeremy Lin: When I shot that three pointer from the corner...
[Sports announcer: Lin from deep.]
Jeremy Lin: That was the loudest I've ever heard an arena. And, I literally felt like I was hovering, because of how crazy the place was.
[Sports announcer: A new star is born in the NBA.]
Through his first five starts, the undrafted Ivy League point guard, scored 136 points more than any other player in league history. Not bad for a guy who had been spending his nights crashing on his brothers' and teammates' couches, uncertain of his future with the team. But then, just as quickly as Linsanity arrived in New York, it evaporated. First came an injury, and then he was on his way out of town bound for the Houston Rockets, and a three-year, $25 million contract. His days on the couch were over. But so was his career with the Knicks, who passed up the chance to re-sign him.
Charlie Rose: What happened? Do you believe they didn't want you?
Jeremy Lin: No, I think they wanted to bring me back. I think they wanted to bring me back at a certain price range. And I think the offer that Houston gave was not in that price range.
Charlie Rose: Can you possibly look back and say, Maybe I didn't do enough to stay in New York. That maybe if I had said to them, "I want to be here. I want to be a Knick. This is home."
Jeremy Lin: You know, I think everything happened the way it was supposed to.
Charlie Rose: You really believe that?
Jeremy Lin: I really do.
Charlie Rose: Turned out the way it was supposed to?
Jeremy Lin: Yeah.
If New York wasn't in his future, Asia certainly was.
Charlie Rose: Tell me about going to China. I mean, after everything that had happened-- the explosion of Linsanity.
Jeremy Lin: In my mind I figured, I'm going to show up to some events and there's going to be a lot of fans there--
Charlie Rose: Yeah, right.
Jeremy Lin: --and they're going to want to take pictures.
Charlie Rose: Yeah, and then--
Jeremy Lin: And that's it but--
Charlie Rose: And then they'll let me go home and I'll be fine back at the hotel.
Jeremy Lin: Yeah, but like, I knew it was going to be, like, intense. But it was probably like five times crazier than I thought it was going to be.
When Jeremy Lin arrived for a series of appearances in China and Taiwan last summer, he was greeted as if he were all four Beatles on a reunion tour.
Charlie Rose: Explain to me what you think it is that people in Asia-- because of the intensity there and because of the role model you are nobody's seen anything like this.
Jeremy Lin: Yeah. I mean, I think, like, you know, I'm-- you know, I'm this-- I'm Asian just like they are. But that's the biggest thing. I'm also, like, their size if-- in a lot of ways, you know, in terms of height and weight and position.
Lin's popularity in Asia could not have come at a better time for NBA Commissioner David Stern, who has hopes of turning his league into a global brand.
Charlie Rose: When you look at your interest in basketball being an international sport does this add to-- does this give some velocity?
David Stern: You mean you think that because China has a billion two--
Charlie Rose: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
David Stern: --or a billion three people? And, you know-- and half of them under the age of-- 25--
Charlie Rose: Yes.
David Stern: And w-- many of them bouncing basketballs?
Charlie Rose: Yes.
David Stern: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
David Stern: You walk into the playgrounds in Shanghai and Beijing, and you see youngsters who are shorter, shaking and baking and having attitude. And Jeremy Lin is going to inspire all of them.
But it's not only the Gospel of basketball that Jeremy Lin wanted spread in Asia. There was also the Gospel of Matthew... as well as Mark, Luke and John.
[Jeremy Lin: I want to encourage you guys to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everybody.]
During the Taiwan leg of his China tour, Lin shared his Evangelical Christian faith not only with an arena full of the faithful, but with hundreds of churches through a live telecast of his message.
Charlie Rose: How did you come to religion?
Jeremy Lin: I was born and raised in the church.
[Jeremy Lin: God was supernaturally using me on the court.]
Jeremy Lin: It gives me purpose for, you know, what I do and-- gives me guidance on how to live my life and what kind of person that I want to strive to become.
Charlie Rose: And it helps you now deal with Linsanity?
Jeremy Lin: Yeah, I think--
Charlie Rose: And God says, "Don't let it go to your head."
Jeremy Lin: I mean, that's one thing-- there's-- I mean, there's a lot of temptations. There's a lot of different things--
Charlie Rose: Exactly.
Jeremy Lin: --that are going on. Yeah. There's just too many ways in which faith plays a part in the grand scheme of things.
Charlie Rose: He's deeply religious.
Shirley Lin: And we like that.
Jeremy's parents, Shirley and Gie-Ming, immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in the 1970s. Both engineers, they raised their three American born sons--Josh, Jeremy, and Joseph in Palo Alto, California. Education was the top priority in the Lin household, but Dad's fascination with the NBA infected Jeremy, and soon he was asking his parents if he could give up piano lessons to focus on basketball.
Jeremy Lin: Asian immigrant parents very rarely, at least when I was growing up, pushed or support their kids to play sports as much as my parents did. It wasn't the typical path for an Asian American kid growing up.
Jeremy balanced books with basketball. And his parents were determined to keep him straight.
Charlie Rose: And your role was?
Gie-Ming Lin: Was play with my kids and--
Charlie Rose: Play with them.
Charlie Rose: And your role was?
Shirley Lin: I do the dirty work.
Gie-Ming Lin: She is a m--
Shirley Lin: He got the fun.
Charlie Rose: He got the fun. So you had to discipline.
Shirley Lin: I'm the one who said, "Study."
The good-Lin/Bad-Lin routine worked and by his senior year of high school the basketball world could not ignore Jeremy Lin.
[Sports announcer: If Palo Alto is going to win this game they are going to need a strong performance out of their unquestioned leader, senior point guard Jeremy Lin.]
Charlie Rose: How good were you in high school?
Jeremy Lin: I would say I was decent.
Charlie Rose: Decent? Weren't you the best player in California?
Jeremy Lin: Well, I got that award. It doesn't mean I was the best player. I think that had to l-- a lot to do with my team's success.
He was named California Player of the Year. And he could pass and shoot, plus was incredibly fast. But when it came time to look at colleges, not a single Division One program came calling with a scholarship.
Charlie Rose: Not one PAC-10 team?
Jeremy Lin: No.
Charlie Rose: Not UCLA. Not Stanford, your hometown?
Jeremy Lin: No.
Charlie Rose: What do you think they didn't see?
Jeremy Lin: Well, I think the obvious thing is-- in my mind is that I was Asian American which, you know, is a whole different issue but that's-- I think that was a barrier.
Charlie Rose: When you say because you're an Asian American, what is that? But there's nothing about being Asian American that doesn't give you the ability to play basketball.
Jeremy Lin: Yeah. I mean, it is just-- I mean, it's just-- it's a stereotype.
Stereotypes are nothing new for Lin. Growing up, he was often the only Asian player on his teams, and frequently heard racial slurs from opponents on the court.
Charlie Rose: What would they say? What kind of things would--
Jeremy Lin: Pretty much anything you could think of from stereotypical, you know, Asian food, you know making fun of my complexion, my skin color, or, you know, the way Asians look, pretty much everything.
Lin believes that if he were black or white he would have had multiple scholarship offers, including one from his hometown's Stanford University. But Stanford's offer was for a walk-on opportunity -- while Harvard, like all Ivy League schools, could not offer a sports scholarship. It did offer a place on the team.
Charlie Rose: Were you happy that he went to Harvard?
Shirley Lin: Oh, we love it.
Charlie Rose: So better there than go to a big basketball school?
Shirley Lin: Yeah, I think so.
Charlie Rose: How about him, though? But-- 'cause he loved basketball.
Gie-Ming Lin: Harvard offer him to be on the team. So I think that would be a good choice. Other than that, Harvard was a better academic than Stanford.
Charlie Rose: Yeah, and then. They're both pretty good.
Gie-Ming Lin: Both pretty good, yes.
But even in ivy-covered Cambridge, some things hadn't changed... they'd even gotten worse.
Shirley Lin: You know, college environment usually very hostile. So he got a lot of name calling, things like that, during the game.
Charlie Rose: Bad names?
Shirley Lin: Bad names, like racist, I think the first you heard it, it make you uncomfortable. It's like-- "Wow, you know, where does that come from?" But then later on he got more, you know, mature.
Jeremy Lin: I mean there are times when people say stuff and I just laugh, you know? All I do is laugh and move on and just not say anything-- and just forget about it. It made me a stronger person.
Charlie Rose: It didn't get you down?
Jeremy Lin: It did. But now-- now it's-- it doesn't really bother me anymore.
What did bother him was that after leading the Harvard team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals, not one NBA team drafted him.
Charlie Rose: Do you think there was ever any discrimination against him because he was an Asian American?
David Stern: I think in the rawest sense the answer to that is yes. In terms of looking at somebody who comes out of-- I don't know whether he was discriminated against because he was at Harvard.
Charlie Rose: Yes.
David Stern: Or because he was Asian.
Charlie Rose: In other words, there's a kind of prejudgment about him. That he can't be that good because he didn't--
David Stern: Correct.
Charlie Rose: --he doesn't have the same background as others.
David Stern: Correct.
In Houston, the Rockets and their fans have embraced Jeremy Lin. He has settled in as an above-average NBA guard and the face of his franchise -- complete with endorsement deals for sneakers and Swedish sedans. He's even made a documentary about himself.
And on the Rockets' first trip to New York earlier this season, Knicks fans showed their appreciation for his brief moment in the stratosphere.
