Do you suffer from winning and grinning, sagacity with your dishing, or reverse off the glass zigzagging? Then you may have come down with a case of Linsanity! NYC certainly is in a frenzy for everything Jeremy Lin-related since the Harvard-grad guard has improbably led the team to a thrilling three-game win streak. Lin has suddenly made the Knicks fun, watchable and easily marketable again: StubHub tickets to tonight's big game against the Los Angeles Lakers are starting at $190. But the thing fans seem to want most of all is an authentic Lin jersey.
Because Lin came out of nowhere barely a week ago, jerseys and memorabilia featuring the Amazin' Asian have not been available anywhere, including the Knicks' own store at MSG. On Thursday morning, the Knicks’ online store started taking orders for $54.95 jerseys and $19.95 “Linsanity” T-shirts, but warned that they would not be shipped before Feb. 20.
In response to the hysterical demand, Modell’s is pulling a batch of the jerseys off the production line early to sell them today—they’ll be on sale at the Modell’s stores on W. 42nd St., E. 42nd St. and Broadway at W. 34th St. According to MSG spokeswoman Stacey Escudero, as many as 200 of the jerseys will be offered for $54 in the stores inside the arena. She added that Garden officials hoped that some of the T-shirts would arrive before the 8 p.m. tipoff.
But it isn't just the flagging Knicks memorabilia industry which Lin may be propping up—he may end up being a major factor in getting the MSG network back on Time-Warner Cable. The channel has been blacked out to Time-Warner subscribers in most of Manhattan since January 1—but thanks to Lin's popularity (MSG Networks said Lin already boosted their ratings 36% since he had been inserted into the starting lineup), both sides have come under renewed pressure from fans to resolve their dispute fast. "You kind of know what you're going to get with the top three players, but he's added excitement," Brad Adgate, the senior vice president of research at Horizon Media. "If they make a playoff drive, I think there's going to be a lot of pressure from the two sides to come to an agreement."
