What is Linsanity? Well, there’s the Google definition, there’s firsthand experiences told by people who watched it during its peak, and then there’s the way NBA legend Dwyane Wade describes it, which makes it all sound almost unreal. To be fair to him, it was unreal to those who had a stake in the NBA — players, coaches, team owners, advertisers, and, if Wade is to be believed, jersey sellers.
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Jeremy Shu-How Lin went undrafted in 2010. He played the Summer League and then signed with the Golden State Warriors and was sent to their D-League team Reno Bighorns. After being cut twice, he found a home with the New York Knicks.
They were seriously injury-ridden during that time, and Lin was expected to warm the bench more often than not. Then in 2012, in a game against the New Jersey Nets, he scored 25 points with 7 assists and 5 rebounds off the bench, leading them to an unlikely win. Thus began Linsanity!
More than a decade after the phenomenon, Lin has finally called it a day on an insane career that no one saw coming. Reacting to the development, Dwyane Wade gave a shout-out to Lin, while explaining just how crazy Linsanity was.
Reminiscing about those good old days, Wade said, “I remember the All-Star Weekend, and I remember every reporter in the world was around Linsanity. It didn’t matter who else was in the league. When we were at our media day, for the All-Star Weekend, I remember looking to my right, like, ‘This is insanity.'”
“Kids were buying his jersey. Bro, it was crazy and all wanted to do was to get out paws on him. We were like, ‘Yo, let us see what this is about.’ But watching from afar, bro, he was doing it. He was hitting game winners with no time on the clock. He was going to Madison Square Garden. He was going against the Lakers,” Wade continued.
Wade reiterated that the way he was going about business, nobody had seen anything like it before. But all good things must come to an end. And this time around, Wade had a profound part to play in it. In his words, “When he came to Miami, we shut all that s*** down. Mario Chalmers, Norris picked him up 94.”
“We shut all that down,” Wade reiterated, but added that the way Lin had everybody’s watching and inspired an entire pop culture movement, that kind of media attention has not been seen since. It was a month and a half of madness, Wade guessed.
The former NBA champ said that Lin was obviously good enough to make it to the NBA and got an opportunity and grabbed it like his life depended on it. “He shined bigger than the brightest star and you don’t see often. Not bigger than the brightest star. Not bigger than Kobe, not bigger than LeBron. That month and a half, nobody was bigger than Linsanity,” Wade added.
Wade also joked that although Carmelo Anthony, who at the time was playing with Lin but had been injured, saw the Taiwanese player shock the NBA and came back earlier than expected.
This is what makes sports so great: moments of unscripted glory. Only war and sports can provide that, and kudos to Lin for taking his moment in the spotlight and running with it.
