Monday, February 20, 2012

Pipp, Lin, and Davis

Injuries occur in all sports and professional athletes fear recuperation time on the bench because of the legend of Wally Pipp.  Pipp was a solid first baseman for the New York Yankees who sat out a game in the middle of the 1925 season, supposedly due to a headache.  His replacement that day, Lou Gehrig, then played 2130 consecutive games for the Yankees on the way to baseball immortality.  Baron Davis, the injured point guard for the New York Knicks may be the latest re-incarnation of Wally Pipp.  As Davis’ injured back was healing and the Knicks languished with an 8-15 record, coach, Mike D’Antoni turned to seldom used guard Jeremy Lin, the last guy on the bench, for a spark in a Feb 4 game against the New Jersey Nets.  Lin responded with 25 points and the rest of the story is known as “Linsanity”. 

Lin has started at point guard in the 8 games since, averaged 25 points per game, and the Knicks have won 7. So why was Lin on the bench in the first place?  Well he certainly doesn’t fit the mold of the prototype NBA player.  The 6’ 3” Lin is of Taiwanese descent, is a Harvard graduate, and looks like he should be running the Physics Lab instead of an NBA offense.  His pro basketball career looked to be a short one until the injury to Davis.  So will Linsanity continue or will opposing coaches figure out how to stop the Knicks’ new point guard?  Will Lin’s magic February be a feel good footnote in this NBA season or the birth of a great career?  Will Baron Davis ever start another game for New York?  One thing is for sure; Jeremy Lin is a breath of fresh air and has given the NBA a needed charge of energy.  This blog is testimony to that since I normally don’t care about the NBA and now Lin has me reading box scores on the Knicks’ webpage.