Doug Davis, former Prep Charter star, who now plays for Princeton, knew that Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks point guard who has emerged as a national and international basketball star over the last two weeks, was a talented player. Davis didn’t know Lin would skyrocket to the top of the basketball world overnight. But he saw where Lin had a lot of talent during his collegiate days at Harvard.
“I played against Jeremy Lin for two years,” Davis said. “He’s a really good player. He had a real good junior year. We played good defense on him. He used picks very well. He could drive to the basket. I remember when he scored 30 points against UConn. That’s a Big East school. That’s big time.”
That should have been a clue there. Lin has been one of the great stories in sports this year. He is one of a handful of Asian American players to ever play in the NBA. Lin, who was born in Los Angeles, is the league’s first Chinese American to become a major star. Already he has graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and the back pages of all the New York City newspapers. He’s on YouTube. He has his own Wikipedia page. Lin has the No. 1 selling jersey in the NBA. It’s amazing. That’s only part of his story.
Lin, a 6-3, 200-pound point guard, played his high school basketball in Palo Alto, Calif. In 2006, he led Palo Alto High School to the state championship. His team had a 32-1 record. He wanted to play for Stanford, but Harvard was the only school that expressed interest in him. So, he decided to play for the Crimson. As a senior, he averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.4 steals a game.
After graduating from Harvard, no team selected Lin in the 2010 NBA draft. Lin opened a lot of eyes when he played for the Dallas Mavericks summer league team in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Lin played extremely well against John Wall, the first overall pick in the draft, who now plays for the Washington Wizards. That was probably the beginning of “Linsanity.”
“I remember when he played against John Wall,” Davis said. “That’s where he got a lot of attention. Everybody saw how well he played against him. I remember people calling me about that.”
After the summer league, Lin signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors. He only played in 29 games with the Warriors, and was waived before the start of training camp. The Houston Rockets signed him on December 11, but let him go after two weeks. The Knicks picked him up off waivers on December 27. He didn’t receive much playing time before New York sent him to the Erie BayHawks in the D-League. The Knicks had thought about releasing him until they had to guarantee his contract for the end of the season.
On February 4, he tallied 25 points, five rebounds and seven assists in a victory over the New Jersey Nets. Of course, his big game was 38 points against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in Madison Square Garden.
“I think everybody saw that game,” Davis said. “That was really something. Ever since then, you keep hearing more and more about him. I think it’s great. My phone has been buzzing about him.”
Davis, a 5-11, 157-pound senior, has played some good basketball throughout his college career. He is averaging 13.1 points a game this season. The Tigers are 13-10 overall and 4-3 in the Ivy League. Ironically, Davis hit a last second jumpshot to help Princeton defeat Harvard to win the league championship and receive the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Lin has led the Knicks to seven consecutive wins. He’s averaging 12.7 points, 5.1 assists and 2.4 rebounds a game.
“Jeremy is playing really well,” Davis said. “He’s got a lot of people excited. He’s really proving himself. It’s a great story.”
Contact Staff Writer Donald Hunt at (215) 893-5719 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
