There have been many one-hit wonders in NBA history, but not many got as popular as Jeremy Lin did in 2012. Lin scored a combined 136 points over his first five career starts for the New York Knicks in the 2011-12 NBA season.
The Taiwanese-American player rose to stardom and, according to former NBA player Baron Davis, it created tension for Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks were Melo’s team at the time, and thanks to ‘Linsanity,’ the undrafted point guard was getting more media coverage than ever.
“It was some weird sh*t going on,” Davis said on a recent episode of the Bootleg Kev podcast. “Obviously, we ridin’ the wave, the Linsanity wave, and Melo was out. We went like five, six in a row, Melo come back. But, when Melo come back, Jeremy Lin is the biggest star in the world. F**k New York, the world! He has literally went from nobody to the face of the NBA.”
Davis added: “We are just transitioning out of the whole lockout, remember a lockout squeeze, so we’re about a year and a half or two and a half years in, so the league is still needing a thing to happen. Man, when that thing happened… Melo came back, and Jeremy Lin was so big, he was bigger than Melo, media-wise.”
While Carmelo Anthony was worried about potentially getting replaced as the star of the team, Davis believes the 2011-12 Knicks were still Melo’s team.
“So it did create a little ‘This s**t is not real,’” Davis continued. “It started to create tension in the way we play because it’s still Melo’s team; Melo is still the dawg. Melo was still our go-to guy.”
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Lin’s five-game stretch was undoubtedly the biggest moment of his career. He concluded the 2011-12 season with 14.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 6.2 APG. The Knicks would go on to make the playoffs but get eliminated in the opening round against the Miami Heat in five games.
Did Carmelo Anthony Really Play A Role In Jeremy Lin’s Departure From The Knicks?
Over the years, there have been many theories about why the New York Knicks allowed Jeremy Lin to walk away in 2012.
Many believe that Carmelo Anthony’s worry regarding Jeremy Lin becoming a bigger star than him was a prominent fact. However, Lin himself denied those claims.
The 34-year-old revealed Melo wasn’t one of the many people who wanted him out of New York. Following the ‘Linsanity’ era, Lin bounced around the league for a few years. He ultimately won a ring as a member of the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
Since then, Lin has been out of the league. He recently made headlines for recording a 50-point triple-double in the Taiwan League. Fans would love to see Lin return to the NBA, but the chances are pretty low.
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