Jeremy Lin. AP FILE PHOTO
NEW YORK—NBA Asian-American sensation Jeremy Lin will not be helping out in the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, but the 23-year-old New York Knicks point guard has become a fixture on US bookshelves.
Injured Knicks guard Iman Shumpert pulled out of Saturday’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest on the eve of the league’s All-Star Game in Orlando because of left knee tendinitis, ending plans for Lin to have a support role in his dunks.
Lin will still participate in the NBA Rising Stars Challenge on the eve of Sunday’s 61st NBA All-Star Game, the league having found a way to include its hottest high-profile star in its annual mid-season showcase event.
Utah forward Jeremy Evans will replace Shumpert in the Slam Dunk Contest, which also features Houston’s Chase Budinger, Minnesota’s Derrick Williams and Indiana’s Paul George.
While Lin lost one opportunity on Wednesday, two more attention grabbers sprung up, the first being his second consecutive week as the featured cover athlete on Sports Illustrated.
Hachette Book Group also announced on Wednesday that it will publish “Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity”, a book by Timothy Dalrymple that is due to reach bookstores in May, offering an inside look at the NBA phenomenon.
Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan, was an economics major at Harvard who could not land an NBA job after graduating, going unclaimed in the NBA Draft and cut by Golden State and Houston last December.
The Knicks took a chance on him but Lin languished on the bench and only a few days remained before the Knicks were likely to cut him rather than be locked into paying him a full season’s salary.
But when Carmelo Anthony was injured and Amare Stoudemire took a week off following the death of his brother in a car crash, the Knicks gave Lin his chance and he responded with the highest point total by any player in his first five NBA starts since 1976, sparking the Knicks to a seven-game win streak.
With prolific scoring feats, last-second game-winning baskets and even huge numbers of assists, Lin captivated Knicks fans and captured the imagination of NBA fans worldwide, becoming the top draw among Asian NBA followers since Yao Ming retired, eclipsing China’s Yi Jianlian of the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.