In 2012 the New York Knicks would go on an impressive run that would forever be remembered as “Linsanity”, as bench-warmer Jeremy Lin led the Knicks to a winning season and a spot in the 2012 NBA Playoffs.

   Lin is a Taiwanese-American and he was the first American of Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA. He is also the first Asian American to win an NBA championship, as he was a part of the Toronto Raptors in 2019. 

   Even though Lin won an NBA championship, he had little contribution to the victory as his season with the raptors was the worst shooting period of his career and during the games, the bench was where you could find him. 

   Lin was an undrafted point guard out of Standford and signed with the Golden State Warriors. He would be released and later would join the Houston Rockets, but be cut from the team only a few days later. Then he was signed by the Knicks.

   Once in New York, Lin would only average six minutes of action per game in 2012, until Feb.4. That fateful day is when Lin finally came off the bench and played an amazing game against the New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets). He played for 36 minutes, scored 25 points and gave seven assists, leading the team to a 99-92 win.

   This was only the beginning of Linsanity as Lin would carry a struggling Knicks team on his back for three weeks. In these three weeks, Lin averaged 22.3 points and nine assists per game. He even faced off against the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers. Against the Lakers, Lin set a career-high of scoring 38 points in one game. 

   Linsanity became viral as this rise to stardom was so unprecedented considering Lin did not even play in more than half of the Knicks’ games before February. Lin for multiple games that season, scored over 25 points and the NBA could not get enough. 

   Sadly in April of 2012, Lin tore his meniscus, ending Linsanity. While this was a sad ending, this is one of the most memorable basketball stories of all time. Linsanity was out of the ordinary and it is the ultimate underdog story.