New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin is set to miss about the remainder of the NBA season (and quite possibly the postseason) as the Knicks announced that Lin “will undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will be out for six weeks.”
With the regular season ending on April 26, the 23-year-old out of Harvard sustained the injury during a March 24 rout against the Detroit Pistons and had an MRI done. It already dampers the Knicks who are fighting with all their breath to keep ahold of the eighth seed of the Eastern Conference and to contain an .500 or higher record with New York sitting at 27-26 and three games behind in the Atlantic Division. The Knicks are already playing without power forward Amar’e Stoudemire with a bad back for an undetermined amount of time and the never ending groin issue that plagues Carmelo Anthony.
Lin has been the talk of the NBA world, after being a undrafted player and being dropped by the Golden State Warriors in 2010, Lin has risen to instant fame with the Knicks as he was placed into the starting lineup and put up some astounding numbers. Thus “Linsanity” was born! Former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni was forced to place Lin in the starting lineup due to injuries to Baron Davis and Tony Douglas and outplayed All-Star guard Deron Williams and had 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists in a Knicks victory over the New Jersey Nets in his first start.
It was only the beginning, Lin then went on to pound Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on national television and scored 38 points in another New York victory. According to Elias Sports Bureau and Yahoo Sports:
“Lin was the first player with at least 20 points and seven assists in each of his first five starts since the Elias Sports Bureau began charting starts in 1970.”
He would lead New York to above .500 record and a five-game winning streak that sent the NBA, the United States and the world into a frenzy, especially in Taiwan where Lin is the first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent to play in the NBA. He seemed to be unstoppable, hitting game winning three against Toronto, he was compared to “Tebowmania” of the National Football League, but the “Linsanity” would die down as teams figured out how to stop him and how poorly he plays against really good teams like Miami.
With the injury, the Knicks will need to count on Davis and Douglas and even Mike Bibby to run the show and this will surely put a brake on Lin’s chances for Most Improved Player of this year’s NBA season.
Lin this season is currently averaging 14.1 points and 6.1 assists in 27 minutes per game.
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