Who the Heck is Jeremy Lin?

A week ago if you asked basketball fans to name a point guard in the NBA and there are probably 30 names if not more that they would be picked before saying the name Jeremy Lin.

Fast forward a week and the unknown 6-foot 3-inch 23-year old from Palo Alto, California is the hottest name in the NBA., and with due reason. After coming off the bench and scoring 25 against the New Jersey Nets on February 4 he got his first start (against the Utah Jazz on February 6) and dropped another 28.

With Carmelo and Amar'e on the mend, the team gave him another start against the lowly Washington Wizards—this time he notched a double-double with 23 points and 10 assists. His point total over those three games was 76; his point total for all of the 2010-11 season—76 points.

He's a flash in the pan! My quadriplegic neighbor could hang 25 on the Wizards! Wait till the new Asian Sensation actually plays someone!

Lin and the Knicks did on Friday night; Kobe Bryant and the L.A. Lakers. Against L.A. Lin dropped 38 points, recorded 7 assists, and pulled down 4 rebounds! A performance like that brings a popular question to mind:

Who the heck is Jeremy Lin?

Well, in a nutshell he's the guy no one ever thought would make it, but has managed to keep on keeping on nonetheless. No one wanted him out of high school even though he led Palo Alto HS to a 32-1 record and the division II state title with a stat line of 15.1 points/ 7.1 assists/ 6.2 rebounds/ 5.0 steals.

That was okay for Lin. Being the smart kid that he is, LIn got into Harvard and played ball with the other really tall nerds. In the process of earning a degree in economics, he became a two-time All-Ivy League first team player and collected stats like no one had ever done in the history of the program.

When it came time for the NBA Draft, Lin got no love from anyone; then again, the last time a Harvard player was drafted was in 1954 (Ed Smith, 6th overall pick, coincidentally by the New York Knicks). The Lakers, Mavericks, and another team all took a stab at signing Lin, but he took less money with the Wizards so he could play for his favorite team (ahhhhh).

To make a long story short, while he was a media darling for the Wizards he just didn't pan out and was cut once the lockout ended. Houston picked him up, but for some reason thought that Samuel Dalembert was worth keeping instead. A few days later the Knicks picked him and he became buried on the depth chart and spent some time in the D-league before shocking the world on February 4.

So there you go sports fans; the life of the NBA's hottest player in 500 words or less. Will he be the next Yao Ming? Or will he be more like Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi, Mengke Bateer, and Sun Yue (real people; not making them up, honest)?

Only time will tell.