When Jeremy Lin Bested Kobe Bryant and Shocked the World

There have been but a handful of celebratory moments for New York Knicks fans these last few decades. Starks throws it down over Jordan and Horace. Allan Houston gets the bounce. L.J.’s four-point play. Bing bong.

The most euphoric of all, of course, was “Linsanity.”

No one had ever seen anything like it: Jeremy Lin, an Asian American point guard who’d gone undrafted from Harvard, suddenly became the most exciting player in the NBA, leading the hobbled Knicks to a 9-3 record during his first 12 starts in the 2011-12 season. During that run, Lin averaged 22.5 points and 8.7 assists per game, hit a game-winning three-pointer against the Raptors, and brought the Madison Square Garden crowd to its feet each and every night. It became known as Linsanity, a cultural phenomenon that took New York City—and the world—by storm.

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The new documentary 38 at the Garden, debuting Oct. 11 on HBO Max, chronicles Linsanity and what it meant for those in the Asian American community who’d never seen an NBA star who looked like them. And it’s named after Lin’s most dazzling feat: a 38-point performance in a win against the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 10, 2012, getting the better of the late Kobe Bryant.

“I wanted to make this movie not just to relive what is still the greatest basketball memory of my life, but to document the power of an ‘impossible moment’—when society at large told a group of people they couldn’t do something, and someone came out of nowhere and proved everyone wrong,” the film’s director, Frank Chi, tells The Daily Beast.

“Jeremy’s story means so much to me because it is the greatest example that Asian Americans have of someone who shattered the stereotypes that plague us—and he did it on the world stage,” he adds. “If I were to describe 38 at the Garden without mentioning basketball, I’d say that Part 1 is about stereotypes, Part 2 is about what happens when someone shatters those stereotypes, and Part 3 is about today –when those stereotypes have been weaponized and turned into anti-Asian violence.”

Check out an exclusive trailer for 38 at the Garden and relive the magic of Linsanity.

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