Lin Heading To NBA All-Star Weekend As Part Of Saturday Night Festivities

The NBA is hoping to add Knicks G Jeremy Lin to its All-Star Weekend lineup by having Lin “participate in the Haier Shooting Stars competition during All-Star Saturday night,” according to a source cited by Frank Isola of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The competition features an NBA player, a WNBA player, and a former NBAer on each team. Lin was “not chosen to participate in the game featuring the league’s top rookies and second-year players” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/16). ESPN.com’s Marc Stein notes Lin also has been “invited to take part in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend.” Sources said that Knicks G Iman Shumpert will be “enlisting Lin to ‘assist’ him in a manner to similar to the help 2011 champion Blake Griffin got from” then-teammate Baron Davis (ESPN.com, 2/16). However, when NBA Commissioner David Stern was asked whether Lin could be added to the Rising Stars game featuring rookies and second-year players, he simply responded, “No” (USA TODAY, 2/16). SB Nation's Bomani Jones said, “I just want to make sure I have this straight: David Stern is going to veto trades for basketball reasons and adjust the landscape of the NBA, but he’s not going to put Jeremy Lin in the Rising Stars Challenge? Not even talking about the All-Star Game.” Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw noted Knicks G Landry Fields is in the Rising Stars game instead of Lin and asked, “Who would Knicks fans rather see? Who would everybody else rather see in this game? There was no reason to name ... the Rising Stars nearly as early as they did” (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 2/15).

SHOULD LIN BE AN ALL-STAR? USA TODAY's Christine Brennan writes, “Should nearly two stunning weeks, accompanied by a back story to match, make you an All-Star? I say yes. Over the years, no league has shown that it knows the value of the individual athlete as [an] entertainer better than the NBA. Lin is a dream come true for an organization whose players were locked out little more than two months ago” (USA TODAY, 2/16). However, in Orlando, Josh Robbins noted Magic coach Stan Van Gundy “recoiled when he was asked if Lin should be in the All-Star Game." Van Gundy: "He's played -- I don't know -- six or seven, whatever he's played, really good games. That's fabulous. That doesn't get you in the All-Star Game. Hell, that doesn't get you in the rookie-sophomore game" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/16).

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser said of Lin, “You hope for a story like this. You hope for a kid out of nowhere. This is Roy Hobbs, this is ‘The Natural.’ I mean, he just exploded ... and New York is important in this because that’s a franchise that hadn’t been real good for a long time and it’s the home of the league.” ESPN’s Michael Wilbon said the NBA “is very aware of Lin’s impact” on the league ("PTI,” ESPN, 2/15).