Harvard-Cornell tipoff. Can we have a do-over?

NOTE: This is Part 2 of 4. Part 1 posted yesterday. Part 3 will post tomorrow.

The game action

At Columbia, on the court Jeremy Lin did what he had to do to put away the underdogs. The right-handed shoulder-leading drive that knifed into the gut of the defense could only be contained so much by Columbia’s zone. And Jeremy showed off a double-spin move, which he capped with a dump-off pass to a wide-open Keith Wright for an uncontested layup.

Before the half ended, Jeremy had the ball with the clock winding down. Usually he takes the last shot, but this time, he drew a couple of defenders and dished off to Brandyn Curry, who nailed a three-pointer as time expired.
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NOTE: This is Part 1 of 4. Part 2 posted on 2/3/10. Part 3 will post on 2/4/10. Part 4 will post on 2/5/10.

Photo courtesy Jennifer Ho.

You never know what you’ll see from Jeremy Lin.

I’ve said that a lot, but usually it’s pertaining to some move I saw him do (not televised and streamed online and you probably can count the number of other people simultaneously watching it on one hand), such as hitting the buzzer beater from near-half-court — with the foul! — in triple overtime against William & Mary, or making four steals in a span of five consecutive possessions by Dartmouth, or baiting Georgetown’s impressive backcourt duo into a half-court steal and dunk, or racing back full court and swatting a layup by UConn’s potential future NBA draft pick Jerome Dyson, or vanquishing Boston University in a 27-second stretch near the end of the game by converting an incredible layup while nearly going too far under the backboard, followed immediately thereafter by a steal and thunderous one-handed dunk to cap a personal 11-0 run. I’m sure I’ve left out more.

I’ve now met with bonafide evaluators of the NBA Draft and there is consensus that, at a minimum, Jeremy can be a star in Europe and/or Asia. So when there’s a real possibility that the months of February and maybe a little bit of March may be the last time to see him play live on American soil, I make it a point to go see him.
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Kobe Bryant with the necessary visit to China.

Here’s an update to our last report on China. Meet Kenny Huang, who just dropped about $70 million to purchase 15% of the Cavs (worth around $476 million), as reported by Brian Windhorst.

Meanwhile, UPS has signed a sponsorship deal with the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association). Dream League friend Terry Rhoads, an expert on sports in China, was interviewed in the article on ChannelNewsAsia.com.

A potential $25 billion market with 300 million NBA fans. Remember those numbers!

Here’s the bio on Kenny Huang…
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Now that the Jan 4, 2010 Harvard at Santa Clara event page is up, I feel compelled to tell you why I really, really want you to go with us to see Jeremy Lin make his potential once-in-a-lifetime appearance here in the Bay Area.

From my perspective, time is running short and I can’t spent the next 27 days proofreading and making this plea perfect because for the next 26 days, I need to be out fighting for my cause and referencing this. So if this comes out with flaws, so be it.

Let me say it bluntly:

If you attend the game on 1/4/2010, it is my firm belief that you will help, ever so slightly, Jeremy make it into the NBA.

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Jeremy Lin, Harvard media guide cover (click for PDF).

The “quest” begins today when Harvard faces Holy Cross. And no, the game’s not on TV. There won’t even be Internet video. In fact, the only thing available is streaming audio.

Or, you can follow my live-tweet of Jeremy’s game at http://twitter.com/nbalivetweet.

At first I wanted to use the cliche headline “the good, the bad, and the ugly”, more just to get attention, but I’m old enough and been-there-done-that enough to know that if you take a step back from all this, there’s really no “ugly”.

This Asian-American young adult is the coverboy of this year’s Harvard Basketball Media Guide. He did it! Harvard is a bonafide Division-1 program in a league whose champion gets an automatic NCAA Tournament bid, whose head coach developed under a living basketball legend.

A famous college town near Boston is fiercely loyal to an Asian-American hoop star in a leadership position. Jeremy Lin is Harvard Crimson basketball. We could stop right here and be ultra-proud.

But I just wanted to temper the “man-crush” with an honest evaluation of Jeremy’s game (the good and the bad), as well as explain further why it will be doubly hard for him to make it into the NBA (the so-called “ugly”).
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