How do you say “Linsanity” auf Deutsch?
BallinEurope supposes that the vocabulary term isn’t quite so necessary in Germany but, according to officials at one Bundesliga club, the phenomenon just might have been visible in Europe last season.
Back in 2010, few observers of the NBA Summer League had an eye on the NBA’s current imagination-catcher (and whoa, did the hype ‘round Ricky Rubio die down quickly, eh?) Jeremy Lin. The lion’s share of attention during that exhibition season was no. 1 draft pick John Wall – this despite Lin’s very nice 13-point, four-rebound, two-steal performance against Wall’s Washington Wizards side.
(As the top-liked comment on the below YouTube notes, “John Wall is a total hipster. He was getting owned by Jeremy Lin before it was cool…” Zing!)
Following ‘League play, Wall immediately entered the D.C. starting lineup for 2010-11, while Lin bounced around a bit after going undrafted with the Golden State Warriors, Reno Bighorns and the Dongguan Leopards of the Chinese league. Lin latched on with the New York Knicks for 2011-12 and the rest is, as they say, history – but that history may be getting a new Eurocentric footnote this NBA All-Star Weekend.
Germany-based heinnews today reports on a story out of the pages of the Sudwest Presse spanning back to that fateful Summer League season. As it turns out, “[Ulm general manager] Thomas Stoll and then-coach Mike Taylor were in the United States” in 2010 and “One player stuck out to Stoll and Taylor: Jeremy Lin.”
Unfortunately for them – and possibly the entire Bundesliga – “His agent [Roger Montgomery] said that [Lin] would either play in the NBA or go to China.” Instead, notes heinnews, Ulm “settled” for former Santa Clara University Bronco/Erie Bay Hawks center John Bryant, who’s currently averaging 14.0 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
So how about a little “Bryantsanity”…?
