Everyone's current favorite Knickerbocker Jeremy Lin spoke to reporters this afternoon before their game against the Los Angeles Lakers tonight at MSG—and he discussed feeling "overwhelmed" by his sudden fame, overshadowing Kobe Bryant, and the cleverness of Linatics. "I didn't know that you can turn Lin into so many things," Lin told reporters. "Me and my family were just laughing last night. I guess we underestimated how creative everybody can be."
Lin and those Linsiders are trying to stay calm in the midst of a very chaotic week, as he's gone from D-League to starting guard for the Knicks: "Things are changing so much and it's like everyone wants to talk to me or my family," Lin said. "We're very low key people and private people and so sometimes it's a little tough. I'm a homebody so I just try to stay inside and enjoy my off day with people that I love and that I'm close to." And hopefully that closeness has given them an edge in getting one of the thus far hard-to-come-by Lin jerseys.
Lin's $788,000 minimum contract with the team officially became guaranteed today. The first Chinese-American to play in the NBA, he spoke about what his expectations for this season had been: “Coming into this year, I wanted to establish myself as a guy in the rotation and not to be a 12th to 15th guy on a team,’’ Lin said. “That’s what I wanted to do and felt I could do. The reality of the situation is I was a 12th to 15th guy on a team and that’s why I got waived a couple of times.’’
He was also asked whether he thought he had stolen all the attention from Lakers star Kobe Bryant (whom he eclipsed on the back page of today's Post) going into tonight's matchup: “I don’t think I’m overshadowing him,’’ Lin said. “He’s Kobe. A lot of people are out here to see him play. Our job is to spoil that.’’
