Two More Jeremy Lin Parables

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.