A Knicks Fan’s Desperate Plea To Stop All This Linsanity

I remember the first time I got royally drunk. I was at a private beach in Zambales with a bunch of friends and we spent our first night there drinking Ginebra San Miguel straight because everyone was too lazy to buy chasers. It seemed like an awesome idea at the time – we had the whole beach to ourselves and there was no apparent downside to getting thoroughly hammered. We were so psyched that we proceeded to drink like there was no tomorrow. I remember us trying to start a bonfire with a bunch of twigs and wet wood that amazingly wouldn’t set fire. At one point I was laughing so hard because a friend of mine decided to get in the water and I couldn’t see him in the dark. I only say that now in jest because he turned out okay. Anyway, the next thing I remember was lying on the floor of the gazebo just in front of the beach and watching the ceiling literally spin wobblingly like a top losing its momentum.

The next day, I had the worst hangover ever. I didn’t wake up next to Mike Tyson’s tiger or anything, but I was so debilitated that I never enjoyed another second of that weekend. I was so excited that first night that I effectively ruined the whole weekend and the whole point of why I was there.

So…what does this have to do with Jeremy Lin? Everything.

I totally get why everyone’s on the bandwagon: Asian-Americans, the Taiwanese, the Chinese, Harvard Alumni, geeks, and people who enjoy talking about things that other people are already talking about. In the words of every single NBA player who have been asked about Linsanity: “I think it’s a great story”. Jeremy Lin is a Hollywood underdog movie come to life. I think the buzz around him is great. I love that his story is resonating on a social level; that racism against Asians and Asian-Americans are put into light, that a much maligned demographic is now being represented by a heroic figure everyone wants to root for.

But now I just want people to stop talking about him. I’ve just about had it. Why? Because they almost never mention the one demographic that happens to have the most at stake here:

Diehard fans of the New York Knicks.

As a person, as a human being, I am really enjoying Linsanity. As a Knicks fan, it makes me a nervous wreck. Linsanity is like two bottles of gin, the media glare is like the absence of chasers, and Knicks fans are like a bunch of middle-aged dudes who know that if they party too hard now, the weekend’s really going to be ruined.

The supposed “social relevance” of Jeremy Lin has been beaten to the ground by now. It is simultaneously real, fabricated, and unrelated to what Lin is actually trying to do. The Knicks’ fortunes, however, are both real and completely related to what Lin is trying to do.

“I’m still surprised that people are talking about ‘Linsanity’ or whatever,” he said in an interview. “I think hopefully as the season progresses, [the attention] will go to the New York Knicks. And hopefully the Knicks can win basketball games, we can make a good push after the All-Star break and people will start talking about the Knicks and not necessarily me.”

See? Our team matters. To the media god du jour, the Knicks matter!

Look, I’m just glad that we’re better (warning: I’m going to say “we” a lot from now on, as if I’m currently employed by the New York Knicks). All those pre-Linsanity games made me want to cry, just by watching pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll being executed by guys with the lowest basketball IQs in the NBA, Carmelo Anthony being double-teamed and triple-teamed, forcing him to pass the ball to the worst offensive players on the planet, and Amar’e Stoudemire running into Tyson Chandler as they both cut to the basket at the same time. We had the worst backcourt that I can even remember seeing in the NBA. Our defense was atrocious. I was already bracing myself for one of the most disappointing seasons of a team steeped in a history of disappointments.

Then Linsanity happens. We start winning again. Mike D’Antoni’s offense starts to look like “Mike D’Antoni’s offense” once again. We now have a legit point guard who also happens to be fearless and clutch. And I was loving every second of it. I probably watched his game-winning three in Toronto around a hundred times on YouTube. I couldn’t believe it. Our season was over. It was over. We were done. Toast. Dead. Then this miracle happens and now we’re suddenly playoff contenders again.

At some point, while I was witnessing this thing that seemed too good to be true, it hit me: this might actually be too good to be true. After all, this is the New York Knicks we’re talking about. I’ve been a fan since 1993 and I’ve witnessed every fucked-up scenario imaginable: losing the NBA Finals after leading three games to two, John Starks going 3 for 18 on the biggest night of the franchise in more than 20 years, losing four straight to Michael Jordan's Bulls after putting them in their first and last 0-2 hole, Reggie Miller scoring eight points in eight seconds to beat us in a game that we already had wrapped up, Patrick Ewing missing a layup that could’ve extended Game 7 of the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Pat Riley leaving us, the Isiah Thomas era that turned our franchise back 12 years, not getting LeBron after years of gutting our fat roster, and now this Amar’e Stoudemire-Carmelo Anthony partnership that could possibly bomb after seasons of waiting for the Knicks to be good again.

So the prospect of Lin being a flash in the pan is a possibility that is not difficult for us to imagine. We’ve seen it all and we know how bad this thing can get.

So on behalf of all diehard Knicks fans, I make this heartfelt appeal to the world: let’s stop the Linsanity. Please. Stop overrating him and thereby guaranteeing that he will fail miserably. Let’s not set a record for the shortest time someone goes from being an underdog to a sickening favorite. Knicks fans already have a lot to worry about as it is, stuff like: Will Amar’e snap out of his slump? Is he actually still injured and will never get better again ever? Will Melo ever get comfortable with D’Antoni’s system? If our best defensive line-up involves Chandler, Jeffries, and Shumpert, how can we stop teams down the stretch when our best offensive players – Anthony, Stoudemire, and Lin – are also our worst defenders?

We do not take failure and disappointment lightly, so while you’re all having fun and posting Jeremy Lin links on Facebook or coming up with the latest Jeremy Lin pun, we’re helplessly watching on the sidelines, worrying that all of you are already systematically ruining the best thing that ever happened to us. So we beg you – in the name of Charles Oakley and everything that is holy – to stop. Please, just stop. We've suffered enough. Thank you.