My understanding is that Jeremy Lin jerseys have been pretty much impossible to come by this week. I know they were available at some point in MSG souvenir shops, but they sold out as quickly as fans got their greasy little paws on 'em. Though I expect they'll sell out again, today is the day to shop:

After legions of Knicks fans cried foul for days over the crushing absence of Jeremy Lin jerseys, city stores on Friday are slated to receive their first batch of gear emblazoned with the name of the NBA’s newest sensation.

"Obviously, New York is excited about Jeremy, and we’re going to give the fans what they want," said Modell’s spokesman Rich Lampmann.

Lin jerseys will be available at three Modell’s stores in midtown and at the Madison Square Garden souvenir shops.

Modell’s is pulling a batch of the jerseys off the production line early in order to satisfy the red-hot demand. They’ll be on sale at the Modell’s stores on W. 42nd St., E. 42nd St. and Broadway at W. 34th St.

Now, that's good news for prospective jersey-buyers, but we ought to acknowledge the ingenuity some Knicks fans showed in the interim. Lin-hacks if you will:

- I wish I could remember who it was, but somebody on Twitter said they were taping over their old Danilo Gallinari jersey (sorry Danilo. Still love you.) so that it read "GALLINARI". I assume they also added a (+9) to the number part on the front and back.

- This young gentleman made a minor edit to a Carmelo Anthony jersey and-- boom!-- Lin jersey.

- And then there's me. I took an old blue dress shirt, cut off the sleeves with a scythe (because that's how I do things), and detailed it with orange glitter paint. Then I wrote "NEW YORK KICKS BASKETBALLs GO NICKS" and "7TEEN" on the front and "JEREMY LIN LINSANITY!!!1 2012" and "KNIX 17" on the back. And now I don't have to go to Modell's. I'd be happy to print more if y'all are interested.

- I'm also selling Limited Edition Jeremy Lin Semi-Adhesive Wet Chin Band-Aids for $17 a piece. Act now or miss out!

The All-Star reserves for both conferences were just announced. Here's the whole roster for the Eastern Conference from the SBN NBA page:

Dwyane Wade, Heat*
LeBron James, Heat*
Derrick Rose, Bulls*
Dwight Howard, Magic*
Carmelo Anthony, Knicks*
Joe Johnson, Hawks
Paul Pierce, Celtics
Andre Iguodala, 76ers
Deron Williams, Nets
Roy Hibbert, Pacers
Chris Bosh, Heat
Luol Deng, Bulls

Yeah. None of those people are Amar'e Stoudemire, which is probably reasonable. None of them are Tyson Chandler either, which seems less reasonable but, then again, it's kind of better for Amar'e and Tyson to get a long weekend to rest. So, as of right now, the Knicks' only two All-Star Weekend participants are Carmelo Anthony (if he's healthy enough to play) and Landry Fields (who'll be a Sophomore person).

Meanwhile, the word from internet personality Tas Melas is that there are rumors of Iman Shumpert being a Dunk Contest participant. I've no idea where that rumor comes from, but it's an odd one. Shump's a pretty silly athlete and we've seen plenty of good video of him dunking...but I'd estimate that he's like 4-10 on dunk attempts this year. He's tried some that would have been impressive, but converted very few.

But anyway, buns for Tyson and Amar'e, but also kinda not buns, too, you know?

The burgeoning legend of Jeremy Lin has become sort of an exercise in basketball hagiography. It feels like every game he plays produces a couple more anecdotes that attest to his brilliance, but also teach us something about, like, basketball in general, and maybe ourselves and the world and life and stuff. The aftermath of last night's game brought about two fun little moments to be added to Lin's ongoing tale:

1. Tyson Chandler admitted to having no idea Lin could dunk:

"I didn't know he could dunk," Chandler said. "When he was going in for a dunk I was like 'No Jeremy, just lay the ball up' and all of sudden he dunks it. I probably was just as excited as the crowd was."

"I was thinking after he dunked," he added, "for at least 20 seconds I was thinking, 'Did I know he could dunk?' I don't remember him dunking."

As Michael Katz makes clear in that blog post, Lin can dunk.

Moral: Don't judge a book by its cover! That book might just torch John Wall and throw down a tomahawk!

2. After the game, Ryan Wittman (a former Knick Summer Leaguer, by the way) texted his dad, Randy, to rub it all Lin.

After Lin finished with 23 points and a career-high 10 assists, Wizards Coach Randy Wittman had to absorb an equally painful text message from his son, Ryan, who played against Lin for four years in the Ivy League at Cornell.

"He told me that they did a much better job guarding him than we did tonight," Wittman said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "Makes Dad feel good."

Moral: Ryan Wittman is kind of mean to his dad!

Anyway, I think we might have to start collecting and organizing these anecdotes so that when the Legend of Lin is assembled, we can be responsible for the Knicks chapter.

So, we have our second (and probably final) Knicks addition to the All-Star Weekend lineup. Landry Fields, just as he did last year, will play in the Rookie-Sophomore game. Here's the news as twat by Howard Beck:

Landry Fields chosen to play in rook-soph game at All-Star weekend. No Shumpert (or Lin).

No Iman Shumpert is kind of a bummer, but reasonable. No Jeremy Lin is obvious, but you can be sure that it got brought up when they were making the Sophomore team. Even if the guy in charge chortled and was like "Ha! He's not an NBA player! He's going to digress to the bean or whatever, right guys? Stupid Knicks.", he totally got considered, and that's a win.

If you're curious, here's the list of folks who made it over Shump via John Schuhmann:

Rising Stars Challenge rookies: Irving, Rubio, Brooks, Knight, Leonard, Morris, T. Thompson, Walker, D. Williams

Shump's not far below those guys, but the selections seem fair to me. Anyway, I look forward to watching Landry in the Roo-- I'm just kidding. I'm probably not gonna watch that.

Amar'e Stoudemire remains in Florida with his family, grieving the tragic death of his older brother, Hazell. It was uncertain initially how long he'd need, but the word now (first reported by TMZ) is that Amar'e will return to the team on Monday. In the meantime, one can only hope that the Stoudemires' grieving process is one of peace and healing. It breaks my heart to imagine Amar'e in that kind of pain.

For the Knicks, Amar'e's excused absence means three more games without their starting power forward. New York will face the Wizards, Lakers, and Timberwolves without Stoudemire or Carmelo Anthony, which means...

...hey, Jeremy. Hey. How you doin', big guy? Kinda sleepy? That's understandable. Mmhmm. Hey, remember that time you played an absurd number of minutes and almost single-handedly ran the Knicks' offense to win them the game on Monday? Remember that? Remember how we all said it was an excellent performance but we'd be foolish to expect that kind of game from you every night? Well, see, here's the thing...

(Seriously, though, Lin is going to be THE target of opposing defenses for the next three games. I've been trying to curb my expectations of the kid, but if he continues to excel in his increasingly crucial role, I might lose it. Also, if he struggles, let us not neglect the circumstances, eh?)

My esteemed colleague Scott "The Dakota Wizard" Schroeder is the lord of the NBA's fringes, and in a post this morning, he informs us that today is the day for teams to make decisions on their non-guaranteed contracts. A number of innocent bros are going to get cut today in order to clear waivers by Friday (when contracts will officially get guaranteed. The headline isn't quite accurate). Basically, if you don't get cut today, you're in good shape.

Scott's handy chart informs us that three Knicks-- Jeremy Lin, Steve Novak, and Jerome Jordan-- are currently playing on non-guaranteed contracts. Now, New York may want a roster spot open for when the China Friendz return, but earlier reports indicate that Mike Bibby (who has a guaranteed one-year minimum deal) would be the one waived in order to make room for someone like J.R. Smith. (There are obviously other options, including a number of guys who'll be released today.)

So, I think it's pretty safe to assume that all three Knicks will have their deals picked up for the rest of the season. Novak's shown that he's a useful three-point specialist off the bench and Jordan appears to be a worthwhile big man project who provides interior depth in a pinch. Lin, meanwhile, seems the least likely to have his deal guaranteed, only because I'm still worried that this is an elaborate hoax and/or hallucination and it'll turn out Lin was never actually on the team, there's no such thing as basketball, and I will awake to discover that I'm a solitary toddler in a barren post-apocalyptic tundra. That's probably not the case, though.

So, this is kind of a bummer. If you missed it, Carmelo Anthony strained his groin while running up the sideline last night (threw a ballin' alley-oop anyway), and Jonah Ballow just twat that the injury will keep him off the court for up to two weeks:

#Knicks SF @carmeloanthony out 1-2 weeks with a strained right groin. #NBA

(If you're not familiar with the parlance of the popular social networking site Twitter.com, that means Carmelo Anthony is out 1-2 weeks with a strained right groin.)

A few things...

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It just warms all of my ventricles to see Mike D'Antoni cheerful and effusive after a game. I'd fallen into the habit of grumpily shutting off my TV after the final buzzer, but I realized last night that if I left it on, I'd quite enjoy the programming. Indeed, D'Antoni was in rare form. Howard Beck captured his best lines:

He called Jeffries’s performance "unbelievably good," then paused and said, "Indulge me one second.

"Anybody who boos Jared Jeffries has got to re-examine their life a little bit," D’Antoni said. "I’m sorry to have to — I love our fans, and I like Madison Square Garden, the arena — but here’s a guy who came back to us, minimum contract. He could have gone to a lot of other teams. He plays as hard as anybody could possibly ever play, with injuries, everything you ask him. He takes every charge, every dirty play, every rebound. He works every second.

And that's just a portion of D'Antoni's paean-rant. To be fair, the Garden crowd isn't as prone to booing Jeffries as they are to groaning when he lines up a jumper (which is hilarious and mostly involuntary, but definitely doesn't help matters). If anybody needs to be defended from booing, it's Toney Douglas.

Either way, Jeffries caught wind of that comment and volleyed some plaudits right back at his coach:

"Me and coach have a great relationship, and I’ll die for him," Jeffries said. "That’s why I take charges, why I dive out there, because he’s the best coach in the N.B.A. There’s no coach in the N.B.A. that’s a better players’ coach...

Good thing I didn't get all choked up when I read that late last night! That would have been embarrassing.

For more good vibez between D'Antoni and Jeremy Lin, take the jump.

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