Jeremy Lin is the latest sports sensation, coming out of nowhere to spark the Knicks to five straight victories.  It’s been a blast to watch, especially because he’s a great kid who’s having loads of fun.  The Knicks were terrible this year, and with their two stars out, it was going to get worse.

The situation was set up perfectly for Lin, who has more than filled the role.

Among many other good articles on Lin, here’s a piece from Sports Illustrated, and one from ESPN.

This piece in the NY Times was especially interesting, written by an Asian American Christian.  What I found interesting is how the author distinguishes Lin from the Tebow phenomenon.  Tebow’s aggressively public Christian identity resonated with culture warrior Christians, those who feel vindicated when “one of ours” achieves some sort of success.  That guy’s a Christian and he’s winning!  God must be at work in some wonderful way!

Lin has little interest in all of that, it seems.  I think that’s great and I hope it continues.

What’s fun about Lin is that he’s playing the game the way it should be played.  No whining about contracts or pouting when he doesn’t get his touches.  He’s just having fun. 

I hope all the “Lin-sanity” doesn’t go the route of the Tebow phenomenon, where every game was tied to the vindication of Christian faith.  All of that isn’t fair to Lin and it perverts the nature of sport, which is all about seriously having fun.  If there’s any higher or greater meaning, it’s that it’s great to see a team come together, play well and selflessly as a unit, enjoy one another, and have fun competing hard.