Linball

That (in bold) is where you lose me. At this point, Lin's a tons better story and it isn't even close. Now, in three years, if Lin flames out and is out of the league and Barea is playing at a high level, you might have something. But at this point, no. Lin wins big.

 

Which is about an equivalent story to "the President is a Jeremy Lin fan."

BFD. Maybe he's hoping it will help get him the Asian vote.

 

Water's too clean to be a backwater...at least, that's what Coors says.

 

That's why I'm trying to say ... that Lin's story is akin to a blurb, whereas Barea's story is a full-blown piece.

 

In the "Shit the President of the United States Should Never Waste Ten Seconds Of His Time Even Thinking About" department for today, from AP:

Turn off the teevee and get to fucking work, jock-sniffer.

 

This is Barea's sixth year in the league. He has incrementally improved each year, but basically, he is who he's going to be at this point, which is to say a role player at best (he started two regular season games for Dallas last year). This is the first season he has averaged double figures. He's scored 20 points in consecutive games only twice in his career and never more than in back-to-back games.

What Lin is doing is historic and he's doing it after getting basically no playing time whatsoever in the NBA. This is an ultimate out-of-nowhere story.

Barea playing well in the playoffs last year? BFD. He averaged 8.9 ppg and it was his fifth season. How is that anywhere close to what Lin is doing?

Even if Lin flames out completely, starts averaging 3.3 ppg and is out of the league next year, his story will still be more compelling than anything about Barea.

Did you go to Northeastern? Is that why a guy who never averaged more than 10 ppg is so interesting to you? Or is it just that you don't like the Knicks? It can't possibly be because you really believe J.J. Barea is a compelling basketball figure.

 

The Barea story has been told dozens of times before. The Lin story is unique.

There've been a lot of unheralded players who have found niches on good, even championship, teams. Lin's story is unique in so many ways, it's not even funny.

 

I just know I won't be watching ESPN again until Lin breaks his leg. Rooting for the kid, and it is a good story, but man do they know how to beat a story to death. Not that this is news.

 

Sacramento finally found a way to shut down Jeremy Lin. They let the Knicks outscore them so badly D'Antoni only played him for 26 minutes.

10 points, 13 assists.

He did commit six turnovers, though, which is something he really needs to work on. Still it was another good game for him as he helped get six teammates into double figures.

 

And they are 7-0 right?

 

Whitlock thought it was at least

 

To recap:

Carmelo and Amare led Knicks: 8-15.

Lin led Knicks without two mega-salaried superstars (although I guess Amare returned tonight): 7-0.

That's some weird shit going on right there. Oughta be mighty interesting to see what happens when Carmelo returns.