WASHINGTON — Jeremy Lin won the Knicks’ starting point guard job and he’s about to earn a permanent spot on the roster once his contract becomes guaranteed for the remainder of the season on Friday. So now there’s just final order of business to take care of.
“I guess I need to find a place then,” Lin says.
WHO IS JEREMY LIN? MEET THE KNICKS POINT GUARD
The overnight sensation has been living with his brother since being signed by the Knicks before the second game of the season. When the Knicks returned from Boston late Friday evening, Lin’s brother had friends staying over so Lin stayed on teammate Landry Fields‘ couch for one night.
Fortunately, Lin has the disposable cash to find a nice place for himself. He’ll earn approximately $800,000 this year, a bargain for a starting point guard. But it’s about more than the money for Lin, who was released by Golden State and Houston during the preseason before landing in New York.
After a brief stint in the D-League and spending most of the time on the bench, Lin is finally getting a chance. He had a breakout performance last Saturday by scoring a career-high 25 points in a win over Deron Williams and the Nets. Two nights later, Lin started against the Utah Jazz and scored 28 against another veteran point guard, Devin Harris. Those two outings guaranteed Lin a spot on the roster before his contract was formally guaranteed. Wednesday night he continued his superb play with 23 points and 10 assists (his first career double-double) against the No. 1 overall draft pick two years ago, John Wall.
“I mean, I’m obviously very thankful,” he said on Wednesday. “In some ways it’s kind of a sigh of relief.”
Each game will present a unique challenge for the California-born, Harvard-educated point guard.
On Friday, he’ll face Lakers veteran Derek Fisher and 24 hours later Lin will be in Minnesota going up against Ricky Rubio, the league’s best new point guard.
“I’m not even looking at the schedule,” Lin said. “I don’t even know beyond this week, to be honest. I can’t look at that now for my own sake mentally. Just try to take it game by game. We have great team defense so I’m not going to focus on a specific matchup as much as the team.”
Lin made a name for himself against Wall two summers ago in Las Vegas. While playing for the Mavs’ rookie/free agent team, Lin scored 13 points on 6-for-12 shooting in 28 minutes compared to Wall’s 21 points on 4-for-19 shooting in 33 minutes. Lin won the crowd and some scouts over with his play.
“Yeah, I remember it,” Lin said. “Just thinking back it was like a blur. I think every time you have a game like that it’s a blur. You don’t really remember everything. That was the biggest game for me in the summer league.”
But it was nothing compared to what Lin has done in his last three games. He’s now trending on Twitter (#Linsanity). His drives to the basket -including a crossover and dunk that left Wall in his wake Wednesday – have been featured on highlight shows.
The Garden crowd has chanted his name and even broke out the “M-V-P” chant.
Meanwhile, the Wizards had 15 extra requests from Asian media outlets to cover Lin Wednesday, whose parents are from Taiwan.
Lin says he’s trying to avoid all the attention. It’s not an easy adjustment going from bench warmer to overnight sensation.
“I think physically the first week is going to be tough, just getting used to it,” Lin said. “I mean, I’m playing more. That’s the biggest change in terms of getting rest and stuff like that.”
