The Jeremy Lin Show goes global (+video)
Jeremy Lin isn't just big in the Big Apple. Jeremy Lin is emerging as a star in Canada, Britain, Taiwan and China.
A fan of New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin holds a sign before the Knicks NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors in Toronto February 14, 2012.
REUTERS/Mike Cassese
Talk about flying under the radar.
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The Christian Science Monitor is based in Boston, across the Charles River from the US's oldest university, Harvard. Few but the most ardent sports fans in this newsroom had ever heard of Jeremy Lin, the Crimson point guard who finished his college career in 2010. He was not picked in the NBA draft. He rode the bench for three different NBA teams.
But Jeremy Lin has suddenly emerged – not just in New York or Boston or the US. He's now a global phenom.
Canada got a taste of "Linsanity" after Tuesday night's last-second shot for a New York Knicks win over the Toronto Raptors. The Toronto Star ran an article putting Lin's winning shot – against the hometown Raptors – on their "short list of thrilling sports moments in Toronto." And this is a country that worships hockey, above all.
Thea Lim, writing in Britain's Guardian newspaper, takes note of Lin's success on the court for the Knicks and how it relates to his ancestry.
"Rarely do Asians get to see themselves in starring roles on western television, or outside of a fictional lens that might poke fun at their heritage, their families or their sexuality."
Clearly, the California native is winning new Knicks fans in Taiwan (where Lin's parents were born).
But there are conflicting reports on how Lin's success is playing in China.









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