The 'Lin-spiring' success of Jeremy Lin

Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts.    — A favorite Bible verse of Jeremy Lin from Romans 5: 3-5           

Even non-basketball fans worldwide are experiencing a new condition called “Linsanity.” My little nephew Luke is raving about him; during a Feb. 16 speech I gave before college students at Chiang Kai Shek College in Manila, my mentioning Lin’s name excited the whole auditorium.

TV host and basketball icon Chris Tiu said on GMA-7’s 24 Oras about America’s new NBA superstar and humble Harvard economics honors graduate Jeremy Lin: “Yung kanyang faith in God… I mean, that was one of the main reasons why he was able to succeed despite everything he went through.”

Despite Yao Ming’s having been in the NBA, stereotypes in the US still perceive that ethnic Chinese or Asians cannot play sports well, so Lin received no athletic college scholarship and was undrafted for four years after Harvard.

Owen Strachan wrote: “He’s an underdog’s underdog. He was unrecruited out of high school despite leading his small school to a state championship against Mater Dei, a national powerhouse. He went to Harvard, tore up the Ivy League (and embarrassed UConn in the process), and promptly went undrafted. He made an NBA roster after outplaying John Wall, the number one pick in the 2010 draft, in summer league, but even then he had essentially no prospects for long-term success.”

NBA’s Golden State team got him as an undrafted free agent but didn’t let him play much and cut him on Dec. 9 last year, then Houston team signed him on Dec. 12 and under-utilized him before cutting him on Christmas Day Dec. 25. Rejected and defeated, he decided to stop trying to control everything and turned to God instead. He began each morning with a devotional prayer before working out at the gym, and he whispered this Bible verse whenever he felt worried: “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Lin next joined the faltering and losing New York Knicks on Dec. 27; it almost became the third NBA team that reportedly was going to cut him too, but its star players were sidelined due to injuries and a family death, so the coach let Lin play longer than usual on Feb. 4. Lin wowed everyone with his unmatched basketball magic that night, and the rest is history. 

Like A Walt Disney movie, how to explain his magic?

A former unknown, Lin is on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline “Against All Odds,” which the New York Times called “the greatest tribute.” The South African-born Canadian basketball star Steve Nash tweeted: “It’s crazy! I’m watching Linsanity hoping every shot goes in. Hope I never grow up.” British host Piers Morgan of CNN tweeted: “To people who say the American Dream’s dead — two words: Jeremy Lin.”

“It’s rare, especially being undrafted,” Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers told the Boston Herald about Lin’s surprising success. He added: “There’s several cases of guys who were drafted (in the NBA), even in the first round, and passed to one team, another team, and finally they matured. This is different, because no one drafted him. They were saying by not drafting him that they didn’t think he could play, and then they cut him several times, and now he’s doing this… I’d love to get inside his head, because he has to be a stubborn kid, a really stubborn kid to go through that and still do what you’re doing.”

During a Q&A session with students, Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari was asked who he would rather coach among the two NBA superstars Kobe Bryant or LeBron James? He smiled and replied, “Jeremy Lin!”

Even basketball enthusiast US President Barack Obama is hooked on Linsanity, especially after Lin’s Lincredible feat of making a three-pointer with only half a second of time left in the game on Feb. 14 Tuesday night to give his team a jaw-dropping come-from-behind 90-87 win in Toronto, Canada.

Bruce Arthur of Canada’s National Post wrote after Lin led the Knicks to this stunning photo-finish win over his home team Toronto: “There is little luck in basketball; it is a ruthless game, a meritocracy, and eventually you are discovered for what you are. There is probably a crash coming; mental exhaustion, death by scouting, a drop from the incredible bar he has set, whatever. But right now the Jeremy Lin story is about how in a society full of nonsense and noise, of fizz and vapor, of pretty colors and manufactured products, we ache for real magic. Here it is. “

Hollywood director Spike Lee said: “The guy they overlooked all this time, he became the guy that’s now the international hero. It’s amazing. Everywhere in the world, they are talking about Lin. Something has happened that there’s no explanation for.”

After his sizzling 28 points and eight assists on Feb. 6 (about which the New York Times reported “Lin he again electrified the crowd and propelled the Knicks to a stunning 99-88 victory over the Utah Jazz”), Lin said to reporters: “God works in mysterious and miraculous ways.”

In an interview for California’s San Jose Mercury News, Lin said: “Sometimes you come up against a mountain and you end up making the mountain seem bigger than God.” He added that last year when he was for the Golden State Warriors: “I was on pins and needles. I was putting all this unnecessary pressure on myself. Now, I feel like I’m free.”

Born to and raised in an immigrant Chinese Christian family from Taiwan, Lin grew strong in his faith at the Chinese Church in Christ in Mountain View, California. Even his hard work, discipline and Ivy League education couldn’t fully explain how he has shattered NBA records. “No, but I believe in an all-powerful and all-knowing God who does miracles,” Lin said.

Jeremy Lin explained to media: “I would say it’s a miracle just because anytime something like this happens, a lot of stuff has to be put into place, and a lot of it is out of my control… If you look back at my story, it doesn’t matter where you look, but God’s fingerprints are all over the place, where there’s been a lot of things that had to happen that I just couldn’t control. And you could try to call it coincidence, but at the end of the day there’s 20, 30 things, when you combine them all, that had to happen at the right time for me to be here. So that’s why I call it a miracle.”

Amid overwhelming success, Lin told the San Jose Mercury News about his constant internal struggle and his priorities: “There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now,” Lin said. “To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that’s not how I want to do things anymore. I’m thinking about how can I trust God more. How can I surrender more? How can I bring him more glory? It’s a fight. But it’s one I’m going to keep fighting.”

            The heart-tugging underdog saga of gutsy, cheerful, church-going and prayerful Jeremy Lin reminds me the about the greatest “Linderalla” saga ever — that of a poor carpenter’s son over 2,000 years ago who was also unwanted, unappreciated and scorned but who triumphed over all odds to change the history of the world.

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