Jeremy Lin has been a starting point guard in the NBA for less than a week now. But the 23-year-old Harvard graduate's meteoric rise from basketball's D-league obscurity to unlikely New York Knicks star has taken the sports media world by storm, inspiring a tidal wave of puns along the way.
Just look at some of the headlines published by New York tabloids:
LIN-CREDIBLE KNICKS DO NUMBER ON JAZZ
-- New York Post, Feb. 8
LIN YOUR FACE!
-- New York Post, Feb. 9
LINNING STREAK
-- New York Post, Feb. 9
THE MIGHTY LIN
-- Daily News, Feb. 10
MAY THE BEST MAN LIN
-- New York Post, Feb. 10
LINCREDIBLE!
-- New York Post, Feb. 11
COMEBACK LIN!
-- Daily News, Feb. 12
JEREMY WIN!
-- New York Post, Feb. 12LIN & BEAR IT!
-- New York Post, Feb. 13LINSTANT REPLAY
-- Daily News, Feb. 13JEL-LIN
-- New York Post, Feb. 13
ESPN, which broadcast Lin's 38-point breakout performance over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, has played a role in fanning the Lin flames:
Lin-citement
-- ESPN.com, Feb. 11Jeremy Spoke In MSG Today
-- ESPN.com, Feb. 11Where Linsanity goes from here
-- ESPN.com, Feb. 11The Lin-sanity continues
-- ESPN.com, Feb. 12TWC subscribers miss Linsanity
-- ESPN.com, Feb. 12Lin As In Win
-- ESPN, Feb. 12
But there's more:
Lin launches NBA "Linsanity" with meteoric rise with Knicks
-- Reuters, Feb. 11Linsanity Rages
-- Washington Post, Feb. 11It's Official: Linsanity Is for Real
-- Time Magazine, Feb. 11The Beautifully Linsane
-- Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12
The top of the Wall Street Journal's Monday print edition is a collage of Lin photos interspersed with a "LINSANITY!" headline. Inside, an article by Jason Gay recapping the "Linsanity' of the last week wonders what might happen if the excitement starts to fade. "For all the pun-tastic headline rapture involving the point guard's last name," Gay wrote, "is there any doubt that the New York Post and Daily News are sitting on HAS-LIN?"
The New York Times has used the term "Linsanity" at least 19 times in print and online the last week, according to a quick search of their website. A recap of the Knicks' 100-98 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday featured this lede:
A hint of Linsanity surfaced in the frigid Upper Midwest on Saturday night. A small but vocal contingent in the capacity crowd of 20,232 at Target Center cheered when Jeremy Lin, the Kinicks' unlikely new star, was introduced before the game with the Minnesota Timberwolves. A handful of Asian fans scattered throughout the arena included a woman who draped a sign that read, "Me Love You Lin Time," over the west entrance to the floor.
The online version of the recap was altered, removing both "Linsanity" and reference to the fan's politically incorrect cheer.
Business Insider even got into the act late last week, publishing a list 50 Jeremy Lin puns, with "Business Linsider" in the no. 1 slot.
There's evidence that if it were not for an annual swimsuit issue, Lin would've been a lock for this week's Sports Illustrated cover.
The Knicks organization is, naturally, attempting to cash in on all of the hype, rushing Jeremy Lin jerseys to the shelves, even releasing a Jeremy Lin app for the Android and iPhone.
There is, however, one piece of Lin real estate that apparently won't be exploited by the Knicks or the media: Linsanity.com. That URL was apparently registered by one of Lin's high school basketball coaches in June 2010. It carries "LinSanitees."
"Having long ago been declared terminally LinSane," a note on the website reads. "We have followed Jeremy Lin's career since his days at Palo Alto High School always firmly believing that his time would come and that the world would know our LinSanity. And, if you're as truly LinSane as us, these TEES are just what the doctor ordered."
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