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Fluke or stats-backed? Inside the hype behind of Linsanity
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- Fluke or stats-backed? Inside the hype behind of Linsanity
If you've been around the NBA long enough, you'll certainly remember Linsanity . Yes, that short, electric stretch when an undrafted point guard out of Harvard took the association by storm.
Jeremy Lin was his name. And while most basketball fans remember it as one of the game's greatest Cinderella stories, there actually lies a more interesting question at the heart of it all:
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Did the numbers themselves justify the hype, or was the "Lin phenomenon" somehow inflated by outside factors?
Lin's numbers
Who doesn't love it when a player nobody expected suddenly catches fire? With superstars, that's almost routine — sometimes even boring — but when it's someone off the radar, it feels impossible to look away.
These days, no matter the sport, not just basketball, stretches like that are often called "Linsanity" runs.
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Does that label really deserve it? Definitely too hard to say, when you're looking across all sports, but once you focus just on the NBA, it does start to make sense. Why? Because Lin's numbers in the weeks from February 2012 onwards were, plain and simple, eye-popping.
Journalist Nate Silver noted as much at the time in "FiveThirtyEight," writing that Lin scoring 89 points in his first three career starts was the most by any player in that span since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.
Furthermore, over four games, the then– New York Knicks playmaker averaged more than 27 points and eight assists while shooting above 53 percent each night.
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For context, since the 1985–86 regular season, only 41 players have recorded four consecutive games with at least 20 points, six assists and 50 percent shooting. That list includes names like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Steve Nash , Gary Payton, Chris Mullin, Joe Dumars, Kevin Johnson, and Mark Jackson — mostly multiple-time All-Stars or even Hall of Famers.
Lin wasn't anywhere near that — and ultimately that wouldn't change — but nevertheless, he suddenly found himself among that elite group. It's almost too good to be true when you remember that he had already been cut twice, went undrafted and came from a school best known for its academic program.
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The external factors
The numbers alone did show that the now 37-year-old had earned every bit of attention he received.
Still, two factors — without taking anything away from Lin's performance — certainly amplified the frenzy.
First, the New York media devoured the story.
Knicks beat writers, covering one of the league's biggest-market squads, are always on the lookout for a story that sells. Sometimes that means delivering a sharp critique, sometimes piling on the hype. Needless to say, when the 6'3" guard suddenly went on a tear, they went all in on the latter — exactly the kind of narrative they'd been craving after years of Knicks mediocrity.
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Then there's the international angle.
Asia is famously the biggest continent by both land area and population. Still, it hadn't really seen a basketball figure capture its love for the sport since Yao Ming's run with the Houston Rockets .
Lin, who has Taiwanese roots, in a way reopened the door, even if just a crack. And because of that, outlets — not only in NYC — were eager to roll out a myriad of Lin stories, each one trying to tap into that massive market.
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In the end, Lin's stats were unreal — there's no question about that — but the frenzy that surrounded the 2019 champion with the Toronto Raptors also had a subtle external push, if you want to call it that.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jan 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
