As Steve Nash sees it, Jeremy Lin’s incredible path from the bench to breakout star is a good, old-fashioned sports story: an underdog athlete playing well, sparking excitement and leading a struggling franchise to victories. It’s not, as some have surmised, a story of Nash’s old coach, the Knicks’ Mike D’Antoni, finally finding a Nash-esque point guard to plug into an offensive system that is making this mania happen. Â Read more after the jump.
No one has more affection for D’Antoni than Nash — the two orchestrated one of the most potent offenses in league history from 2003 to 2008 — but he said the credit in this case should go to the player himself.
“Every team in the league runs pick-and-rolls, so I don’t see why you would discredit what he’s done or qualify it,” Nash said of Lin, who is averaging 26.8 points and eight assists during New York’s five-game winning streak. “I think he’s been outstanding regardless.”
Nash jumped on the Lin bandwagon on Wednesday, tweeting, “If you love sports, you have to love what Jeremy Lin is doing. Getting an opportunity and exploding!!” to his list of followers more than 785,000 long. In one sign of how Lin’s accomplishments are drawing major global interest, Nash’s comment was retweeted more than 6,000 times.
Roger Montgomery, Lin’s agent, hasn’t had a full night’s sleep for “about five days now,” he said, with interviews requests for Lin pouring in from all over the world and business opportunities booming. David Letterman has reached out, Montgomery said, as has Diane Sawyer and “90 percent of the major media personalities” (no Jay Leno yet, however)
