Jeremy Lin

I was at the Portsmouth Invitational in Virginia two years ago when Jeremy Lin was there. Portsmouth is a great freaking tournament. Good facility. Nice little town around the gymnasium. You can walk to a lot of places. It was a pretty cool scene right on the water.

Although it was sunny, warm and tranquel all weekend, it's a high stress environment for everybody involved. The players are fighting for their lives, trying to showcase their talent while functioning within the team concept. There were 10 teams of 8-9 guys, all trying to show their skill set without stepping all over each other in the process. Then there's the agents, all low level in stature who are trying to keep their agency doors open. The big time agents never go to this. It's the smaller guys, the guys who have mostly overseas players. They're looking to build on their roster of quality players who can find good overseas jobs, while holding out hope that maybe the guy they are talking to can find a niche in the NBA. Then there's the team executives, both from the NBA and overseas organizations. All these guys are somewhat hoop royalty, but they have a shot clock on them too. They gotta find good players that can help their teams. I introduced myself to a lot of guys: Danny Ainge, Mitch Kupchak, Darryl Morey, Fred Hoiberg, Dave Griffen, Chris Grant among others. They like to show up for a day and a half and do their due diligence. Those guys I named have found good players at this tournament.

Jeremy Lin was playing in the first game that I saw that weekend. Actually to be honest, I walked in and he made a no look, three quarter pass to a guy running the floor for a dunk. There were oh's and ah's and cheering. From there on Jeremy was one of the better players on the floor and his team won.

When I sat down and started watching, here's what I remember noticing about Jeremy Lin: big feet, big calves, powerful speed and burst when he was dribbling the ball. He made 3-4 passes that weekend that drew oh's and ah's from the crowd. He had great court vision and creativity with his passes. His passes were on time and he anticipated where his teammates were going to go. He had a great feel for that. Offensively, nothing special. His jumper form looked acceptable. It was a good stroke with good spin. He didn't make many jumpers or take many jumpers. But he made his free throws. He was a strong finisher in advantage situations. No dunks.

I didn't think he could play in the NBA. But I did think that he stood out from the group of players at the tourament. He looked a little bigger and stronger than most players. He was fast. He made great passes. He was a guy you kind of just wrote down in your notebook just in case. He was a guy you wished you had seen play a little more at Harvard.

I wasn't surprised when the Warriors signed him as a free agent that summer. He is a really cool guy to have on the roster. I feel bummed for the Rockets for letting him go this pre-season. I wonder if it would have been a normal training camp and off-season that they might have kept him. They needed a break with the way things have gone the past few seasons, in addition to them getting shut out of Pau Gasol this season. The guys that didn't deserve a break are the guys that got him; the Knicks.

Nevertheless, I think it's so awesome what he's doing with New York. He's been great everywhere. Great on the pick and roll. Great 3 point shooter. Makes free throws. Finishes in traffic. Changes up his finishes with a lot of mid range shots. A couple great assists every game. It's been an awesome run for him. I'd like to see him keep it going. Enivitably, Melo and Amare and Baron Davis are gonna ruin this. Lin is bound to hit a rookie wall. But let's hope that doesn't happen for a least a couple more months.