NBC Sports blog ProBasketballTalk thinks recent Harvard grad Jeremy Lin’s fearlessness and attitude might help him make his way onto a NBA team’s bench, even though his stat line might not.
At the beginning of Friday’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Washington Wizards, those assembled at the COX Pavilion in Las Vegas were on their feet and craning their necks to get a look at No. 1 overall pick John Wall.
But while Wall was the star of pre-game warmups, Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin ended up stealing the show. Lin isn’t the most athletic guy in Las Vegas, and he’s not the most skilled, but he may be the most fearless.
… Lin’s bid for an NBA roster spot may come up just a bit short. Friday was by far the best of Lin’s four summer league games, and his stat line still didn’t look all that impressive: 13 points on 6-12 shooting, four rebounds, two assists, four turnovers, and six fouls. It’s hard to make the NBA as an undrafted rookie without great athleticism, a great shooting stroke, or great court vision, and Lin doesn’t have any of those. What Lin does have is the toughness, determination, and savvy that have made him one of the most fun players to watch in summer league, and there’s always a chance an NBA team will want somebody with Lin’s attitude and approach to the game on their bench.
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See the earlier blog post containing the video highlights of Jeremy Lin at the Mavs. vs Wizards (John Wall) game last night.
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USA Today has the following segment on Jeremy Lin in their Vegas roundup:
Lin drawing attention
One of the fan favorites at the NBA’s Vegas Summer League has been Dallas Mavericks guard Jeremy Lin.
Lin is an undrafted free agent who played at Harvard and is trying to become the first American-born Asian to play in the NBA. Lin’s parents are from Taiwan.
Against the Washington Wizards and John Wall, the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft, Lin more than held his own with 13 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals. He knocked down a long, high-arcing three-pointer and made drives and passes that energized fans, many who came to see Wall.
“My most obvious goal is to make an NBA roster, along side helping this team win as many games as we can,” Lin said. “A lot of people haven’t seen me play coming from a smaller conference. … I’ve known that I can play. I just needed a chance.”
Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson said the team has been tracking Lin since his freshman season at Harvard.
“He’s a player. He’s smart. He’s good court savvy,” Nelson said. “He’s a combo guard who play a little one or a little two. He’s athletic and makes everyone around him better. He’s quicker than you think and has the ability to get into the paint and draw contact.”
In consecutive Summer League games, Lin has scored 8, 4, 12 and 13 points.
“He’s gotten better every game,” Nelson said. “He’s your typical young player in that he will look good done night and struggle the next like all rookies.”
Making Dallas’ roster will be tough. The Mavericks already have Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Jose Barea, Rodrigue Beaubois and DeShawn Stevenson, and the acquired guard Dominique Jones the night of the draft.
“I’m just trying to play my game and hopefully get a shot at the NBA,” Lin said.
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ESPN’s TrueHoop blog writes,
Jeremy Lin stole the show late in the stellar Dallas-Washington game. With the Mavs down a couple of possessions, Wall and JaVale McGee trapped Lin off a high ball screen. Lin split the defenders, darting left through the opening. Against the collapsing Washington defense, Lin then propelled 270 degrees in the air to get off a right-handed jumper against contact. The acrobatics roused the Cox Pavilion crowd, who almost rioted when Lin was whistled for a charge.
Zach Harper of Hardwood Paroxysm on the John Wall-Jeremy Lin fourth quarter battle: “Funny thing happened on the way to the Bellagio … Jeremy Lin and John Wall faced off in the fourth quarter of the Wizards-Mavericks game in Vegas and pretty much played each other to a standstill. That’s right. An undrafted Harvard, SMAHRT kid, point guard went toe-to-toe with the number-one pick in the NBA draft and sort-of held his own. The final box score will show John Wall with an impressive 21 points (let’s just forget about the 4/19 shooting), 10 assists and seven rebounds. But it won’t show that the majority of the Lin’s 11 fourth quarter points were the result of him getting the better of the ‘best player in the draft’ for times than Wall will care to remember. Lin and Wall played the equivalent of an iso chess match on the hardwood game board. The kid from the Ivy League refused to back down from the YouTube sensation and while Wall walked away with the highlight reel, Lin walked away as the fan favorite.”
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ESPN’s Andy Katz has an article about Harvard coach Tommy Amaker’s high level of recruiting. Excerpt:
At Quinnipiac, coaches hailing from the Big East and the A-10, among others, all said that the Crimson landed an impact player in [Laurent] Rivard, who has the capability to compete at a much higher level.
Amaker has made Harvard an attractive basketball destination for recruits. Former coach Frank Sullivan was beloved by his colleagues during his 16 years in Cambridge, Mass., and was brought on to be a basketball advisor for the America East after he was pushed out of Harvard. But the program received no national attention, even under Sullivan. Amaker has the name (he played for Duke in the mid ’80s) and the tenure as a head coach (even if he was inconsistent with Seton Hall and Michigan) to raise Harvard’s profile.
But landing recruits (and the rare, but not damaging, “unintentional secondary basketball violation” when assistant Kenny Blakeney had conversations with the staff prior to officially joining the school in 2007), has given the Crimson a chance to do something special.
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EuroBasketNews has an exclusive interview with recent Cornell graduate Louis Dale, who will be playing for German team DC Goettingen. An excerpt in which he talks about his college career:
You just finished a stellar 4 year career at Cornell. What will you never forget about your Sweet 16 run in 2010 at the NCAA tournament?
I won’t forget my teammates and coaches and how hard we had to work to achieve what we did. Going through that experience with some of my best friends truly made the sweet 16, ’sweet’.
You played against John Wall in the NCAA tournament. He was drafted #1 in the 2010 NBA draft. Some said that you were on of the top point guards at March madness. Does it hurt that you didnt get drafted?
I would’ve loved to have been drafted much like any other basketball player, but the fact that I wasn’t only makes me try to analyze my game and see where I can get better.
You played in the Ivy League which is not one of the stronger divisions. Do you think this might of hurt your chances of being drafted and not getting the deserved respect that you should of gotten?
I definitely think playing in the Ivy League hurts a bit in terms of being considered for the NBA, but hopefully in time someone will help change this situation.
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Recent Cornell grad Jon Jaques, who blogged for the NYT Quad Blog during his college career, is now blogging at Slam Online (in addition to embarking on a pro Basketball career in Israel).
In his first post, he discusses how his Cornell career inspired the title of his blog, “Blue Clips”:
… Although I will be more democratic in my coverage of college basketball topics on this blog, of course the blog’s title pays homage to Cornell Basketball. “Blue Clips” is one of the many idioms our coach Steve Donahue (now the head man at Boston College) became known for during my career. Whenever we sat down for a team film session, the clips Coach D decided had won us the previous game were marked with a blue tab on his laptop. One-hundred percent of the time these clips would feature us diving on the floor, grabbing 50-50 balls, making an extra pass, or scrapping for an offensive rebound to earn an extra possession. Coach D started calling these highlights “Blue Clips” and the rest is history.
Since this expression literally came out of the blue, our team thought it was hilarious and ran with it. We congratulated each other for Blue Clips. We pointed out the Blue Clips to each other in other games we watched. Coach D begged us for Blue Clips before and during games (“Blue Clips” was written on the whiteboard pre-game checklist before each NCAA Tournament game). Since it turned out that Blue Clips helped us win basketball games, the term became much more than an inside joke. So in Cornell basketball lingo, Blue Clips = success. I apologize if I picked a title that means nothing to anyone but myself, but (get ready for the cheesiest closer of all time) I’ll strive for “Blue Clips” in every blog I write (warned you).
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Intro by Bill Bradley.