The kid just wants to play

And to think that just a few months ago, I was ready to give up on the NBA. The league of millionaire players squabbling with billionaire team owners over the last scrap of dollar. "This is not what inspires people!", if can paraphrase Jerry Maquire.

This was the league as one Jeremy Lin struggled to find his place under the NBA sun. He didn't quite fit the profile. Harvard degree in economics, undrafted even by colleges, and of course, Lin is Asian. Born in the USA to Taiwanese immigrant parents.

But the kid loves to play. All he wants to do is play. Even after he was cut by Golden State Warriors, waived by the Houston Rockets, then found himself the third-string point guard of the hapless New York Knicks. He was willing to ride the bench out and play garbage time, if only so he can hold on to that quickly dimming chance that he may be allowed to really play in the NBA -- one day. And that day finally came when both starting and relief point guards suffered an injury.

This is how you play the game. The seven straight wins, as of this writing, is not even it. There is genuine joy for every great play made. You see it in his stride. You can see it in his smile. Yes, people, the kid smiles in the heat of battle.

That Jeremy is Asian is incidental. That he is an inspiration is why I have succumbed to LINsanity!