Linsanity: Jeremy's 15 minutes

Offensive mastermind Mike D'Antoni's recent resignation has hoisted former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson into the hot seat. This guy actually had a good coaching record with the Hawks (he's coming off a 53 win season from 2009-10), and in his short stint as interim head coach, the Knicks are 3-0 and seem to have taken on a new defensive mentality that was nowhere to be found in the D'Antoni era. But let's try to tackle the question that's on everyone's mind: Will we see a resurgence of the global phenomenon of Linsanity as the Knicks regain their winning ways?

In short, no. Let me preface this, though. I love Jeremy as much as the next guy. The dude's inspirational. But upon closer evaluation of the period of "Linsanity", I find that it's going to be extremely difficult to for Lin to replicate that level of play. Let's say "Linsanity" was the Knicks' 7-game winning streak spanning from Feb 6 to Feb 15. Here are some factors that made Linsanity possible:

1. Carmelo (leading scorer) missed 6 of these games.

2. Amare (second leading scorer) missed 4 of these games.

3. With the scorers out, Jeremy averaged absolutely insane numbers over these 7 games: 24.4 ppg and 9.1 apg. The elite PG's in the league don't even have season averages that match that (Derrick Rose is the closest; he's averaging 22.8 ppg and 8.0 apg on the year). This statistical explosion allowed Jeremy to access comparisons to Michael Jordan and Lebron James. Time Asia was quick to exploit those comparisons.

4. D'Antoni went full-throttle with the PG offense. He gave Jeremy the green light to shoot and to possess the ball for 70% of the Knicks' time on offense.

5. MOST IMPORTANT: Other than the Lakeshow, the Knicks played extremely weak teams over these seven games (e.g. New Jersey, Washington, Toronto, Sacramento).

Just kidding, the Kings are awesome.

Now, let's look at Lin under Woodson: 12.7 ppg and 5.7 apg. Sure, it's only been 3 games, but these numbers are MUCH more accurate indications of how Lin is as a player. He's not holding the ball all the time in Woodson's isolation offense, and is deferring to the scorers. While I certainly disagree with Stephen A. Smith's evaluation of Lin (skip to 1:24), Jeremy Lin is not the second coming of Magic Johnson.

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of it. Linsanity was more than just basketball, it was viral marketing. Once you have "Lin breaks Jordan's record" or "Lin drops 38 on Kobe" trending on twitter, you have a phenomenon. But Jeremy is mildly famous now. He's not really that unknown underdog anymore. The half-priced Linsanity t-shirts and fan gear signal a dying trend. Jeremy Lin belongs in this league, but the decline of his temporarily astronomical popularity is probably a good thing. I mean, do we really want Jeremy Lin starting over Derrick Rose in the 2013 All-Star Game?