Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Intuitive Group Review ‘Lin-Sanity’

Linsanity
With all of the buzz around “Linsanity” I thought…what better topic to discuss other than taking advantage of your opportunities! Jeremy Lin did not start off as a LeBron James or Kobe Bryant; he really had to use the opportunities he was given to his advantage.

In high school Jeremy Lin was captain of the 32-1 Palo Alto basketball team, and went on to upset nationally ranked Mater Dei.  By the time he graduated he was the All State and Northern California Division II Player of the year. His average stats: 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 5 steals. You would think colleges would be fighting to have him represent their school; Lin wasn’t offered one athletic scholarship out of high school.

Pac-10 schools only offered Lin to walk onto their basketball teams. Harvard and Brown were the only schools that guaranteed him a spot on their basketball teams.  Jeremy took advantage of the opportunity Harvard offered him; even though he was not offered an athletic scholarship he was going to be able to play basketball. When Lin started, the Harvard coach said at best Lin was a Division III player.  Lin did not let thoughts like those affect him.  By Lin’s junior year he was the only NCAA Division I player who ranked top 10 in his conference for scoring (17.8), rebounding (5.5), assists (4.3), steals (2.4), blocked shots (.6), field goal percentage (.502), free throw percentage (.744), and three-point shot percentage (.400).  During Lin’s senior year he was one of 30 mid-season candidates for the John R. Wooden Award and one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award.  Jeremy Lin was picked among the 12 most versatile players in college basketball.  Lin finished college as the first player in the history of Ivy League to record at least 1450 points (actual 1483), 450 rebounds (actual 487), 400 assists (actual 406), and 200 steals (actual 225).  What NBA team wouldn’t want Lin on their team? None of them actually.

After college Jeremy went undrafted into the 2010 NBA.  With such a great college performance this might crush any other basketball player with hopes of playing in the NBA…not Lin! He was offered one opportunity to play in a summer league for the Dallas Mavericks.  Again Lin played well and caught the attention of four NBA teams.  He decided to sign a partially guaranteed contract with the Golden State Warriors.   Warriors coach Keith Smart said Lin had a tendency to be hard on himself and get frustrated easily, so the decision was made to not play Lin as frequently to remove some of the pressure he put on himself.  Lin made the opening day roster but was placed on the inactive list.  Three times during the season Jeremy was assigned to the Warriors D-League.  Being demoted to the D-League could put a damper on anyone’s ego…maybe make them angry… maybe even sad…maybe even make them quit.  Lin didn’t view his move to the D-League as a demotion by any means; he realized he was learning and putting in work to become a better player.  Jeremy Lin used the move to the Reno Bighorns as an opportunity to grow and become a better player. In the beginning of the 2011 NBA season there was a lockout and Lin took this time to recover from a knee injury. After the lockout Lin was picked up by the New York Knicks off waivers as a third string point guard.  Shortly after their game against the Golden State Warriors, Jeremy was assigned to the Erie BayHawks (another D-League team). During a game against the Maine Red Claws, Lin scored a triple-double with 28 points; three days later the Knicks recalled Lin.  Finally on February 3rd Lin had an opportunity of a lifetime. It was the New York Knicks vs. the Boston Celtics; the Knicks had just lost 11 of their last 13 games and were going to lose this game too.  Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni decided to play Lin in the fourth quarter.  This was just days before Lin’s contract was to become guaranteed, and the Kicks had plans of trading him. The next night Jeremy Lin and the Knicks played the New Jersey Nets. Lin knew the opportunity he had and he took full advantage finishing the game will all career highs in points (25), rebounds (5), and assists (7). In the subsequent game against the Utah Jazz, Jeremy Lin made his first career start. The Knicks beat the Jazz without their two biggest players, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire.  On February 10th Lin set new career highs of 38 points and 7 assists. Jeremy Lin now starts for the New York Knicks and as the say the rest is history…or should we say making history.



Jeremy Lin obviously has an incredible story of triumph and success, but you should not be surprised that he made it.  Lin never stopped giving it his all in everything he did.  He had set backs like all of us have or will, but he kept his spirit high and his attitude positive.  Lin knew everything he was going through was just a learning process to get him ready for his success.  Jeremy Lin took full advantage of every opportunity that came his way, even if it was not as prestigious as he would have liked. You may find yourself in situations where you feel like you have more potential than the position you are in or should be farther along than where you are, never let this unmotivated you.  You are given opportunities every day to better yourself and push yourself closer to success. Start taking advantage of all these opportunities.  You may not understand them at the moment and you might not realize an opportunity is right there in front of you because you think you are better than the opportunity given; all opportunities are teaching you how to become successful, and one day the opportunity in front of you is going to be your ticket to success . . .
Don’t let it pass you by!

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