Lin takes over Toronto ... and Twitter
Lin struggled early, and the Knicks' five-game winning streak looked in peril in Toronto. But somehow, he rescued a hype-geist in the most spectacular fashion imaginable. Here's the story, as told through social media.
- Before the game against Toronto even starts, Va-LIN-tine's Day is a cultural meme. Fair enough, as hearts throb en masse for the kid. Fair enough, as even Raptors fans cheer every Lin bucket.
- Jose Calderon is not returning the love, though. He's torching Lin early, and Lin is forced into five first-quarter turnovers. It's going so well for Toronto that Calderon's trade value is skyrocketing, according to one jokester:
- In the fourth quarter, Lin helps marshal a comeback that does not inundate the Raptors so much as slowly overtakes them like a shifting ocean tide.
Then, with 1:05 left, Jeremy ties the game with a launching, lurching and-1 finish. The play is cool enough to prompt this fairly representative reaction: - Also representative:
- And then ... the shot heard over the border and across the ocean. You know, round' the world. For a surreal moment, the cleverest Twitter pundits lost their Lin puns in favor of crazed exultation.
Even Reggie Miller is cheering a Knick now?
- And what of a team Jeremy recently shredded?
- A little bit of criticism from Jeremy's landlord.
@JLin7 's shot was great... His celebration ill say was fair at best LOL #Linsanity- Fun, even without the suspense factor.
- Amare compared Jeremy Lin to Steve Nash, but what did a grizzled veteran like Nash think of all this?
- More reactions from cynical, jaded NBA veterans.
