Lin’s Success Due to D’Antoni’s System?
The fourth quarter came, and so did the big shots, the big passes, and the loud, long Linsanity ovations. Once more, (Jeremy) Lin had turned the Garden upside down. Once more, he had New York, had a nation, on a yo-yo. And when it was over, (Jason) Terry hadn’t changed his mind. No Linsanity for Terry. He isn’t alone in the NBA. In a lot of ways, this is an underestimation of Lin’s ability, but it isn’t an isolated opinion. Terry sees (Mike) D’Antoni’s system, and he sees inflated stats. It’s a way to dismiss this historic run, and somewhere between Lin’s great ability and D’Antoni’s perfectly fitted system, there’s an ultimate truth.
“If you play 46 minutes (a game) in this league, you have an opportunity to put up some nice numbers,” Terry said. “Again, it is what it is. He’ll have to maintain this pace. It’s going to be tough. Ask anybody: Give them an opportunity, ball in their hands, 20-plus shots and you better do something.”
Lin’s done something, done a lot and still he’ll need to do more. And more. And more. Within the NBA, Lin’s story has become a runaway locomotive, and he keeps feeding this monster with victory after victory, performance after performance. Terry would go on to compliment Lin’s journey, his toughness, his faith, but Jeremy Lin as a burgeoning NBA star seems far-fetched to him.
There’s something to the notion that Lin’s talents are perfectly suited for D’Antoni’s system, that he’s a beneficiary of it, but the Knicks have plugged plenty of journeymen into the job and watched them fail. D’Antoni needed a savior, and he dropped out of the sky for him.
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