Opinion | Right Field: Fleeting Linsanity could come again
As Jeremy Lin prepares for release from an ill-fated spell with the LA Lakers, there's hope he could refind his form with Dallas
Don't worry LA it will all be over soon. In a few days' time the curtain will fall on the 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers. For more than 30 years the Lakers have been the gold standard in the NBA, so much so that when former basketball league commissioner David Stern was asked what two teams would constitute his dream finals match-up he said: "The Lakers and the Lakers."
It's hard to believe it was a little over three years ago that Lin set the world on its ear
The Lakers had stars on the court and even more off the court. Led by venerable Jack Nicholson, who has had courtside seats for more than 40 years, Laker games were where Hollywood's elite met the sporting elite.
This year, the Lakers are historically inept and will set the franchise record for the most losses, breaking the mark set by last year's team. The stench is so bad that legions of vapid Hollywood wannabes, B and C listers, are now sitting courtside cheering on the likes of Tarik Black, Wesley Johnson and Jabari Brown.
Amid the rubble and ruin of the franchise formerly known as the Lakers sits the phenom formerly known as Linsanity. Yes, Jeremy Lin is still in the NBA. It's hard to believe it was a little over three years ago that Lin set the basketball world, in fact the entire world, on its ear. The Harvard graduate from Palo Alto, California, whose parents had migrated from Taiwan, came off the New York Knicks bench and invigorated the forlorn squad in February 2012 with a dazzling display of offensive prowess and dexterity.
He proceeded to go viral in a heartbeat while energising legions of both indigenous and overseas Asians starving for a sporting hero. The sense of pride was palpable and inescapable, but after his 25-game stint as a starting point guard ended, he became a free agent and took a better offer to play for Yao Ming's old team, the Houston Rockets.
All Lin wanted was to be judged as a basketball player and not as a cultural phenom. For US$25 million over three years, Houston would give him that chance and the results were mixed at best. Lin is an electric offensive talent who can occasionally play out of control.
The Rockets looked at his high turnover rate and his feeble defending and decided to cut bait by trading him last summer to Los Angeles.
Lin was exiled to the witness protection programme that the Lakers had become. Under the massive shadow of superstar Kobe Bryant, an ageing and domineering diva, and new Lakers coach Byron Scott, an unimaginative taskmaster, Lin has floundered.