If you've been paying any attention to the NBA over the past week or so, you know that Jeremy Lin just came out of nowhere and is carrying the Knicks on his back in the absence of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. It's becoming the talk of the NBA, and it's taking on many forms.

The Good:
Jeremy Lin himself IS the good. Tonight, he scored a career high 38 points against the Lakers, and led the Knicks to a 92-85 win. Before the game, Kobe Bryant said he didn't know who Lin was, when he was asked about him. I'm sure Kobe got a little more familiar with him tonight. In their previous game, a 107-93 win over the Wizards, Lin had 23 points and 10 assists. In two games before that, he scored 25 and 28 points.

In case you need help with the math, that's 114 points in 4 games. That's from an undrafted free agent out of Harvard who previously had 108 points in his entire NBA career.

Lin is absolutely killing it for the Knicks right now, and making the most out out his opportunity while the Knicks' superstars are out. Through his first 3 actual starts, he scored 89 points. That's the most ANY player has scored in his first 3 starts since the NBA/ABA merger, according to ESPN.

The Bad:
It's not a huge deal yet, but people are already hyping him up a little too much. "Linsanity" is already starting to look like Tebowmania.

In Lin's defense, he has nothing to do with it. Just like Tebow had nothing to do with the media's ridiculous reaction to him. Also, Lin is actually playing extremely well, unlike Tebow. But still, once the mainstream media gets attached to him, they'll talk about him ad nauseam, everyone will get sick of him, and we won't be able to just appreciate what he's doing on the court.

Of course, that could chance when Melo and Amare come back, so we'll see.

The Ugly:
Not surprisingly, when someone shows up in the NBA who doesn't look like most players in the league, people notice. We've seen a few Asian big men in the league, like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. Asian point guards, however, are a new thing in the NBA. 100% Injury Rate, whom some of you might remember, pointed this out on Twitter, from notorious race-baiter Jason Whitlock.


Whitlock tweeted this immediately after the game, as Twitter was blowing up about Lin's performance. I'm sure he'll deny it later, but it was an obvious reference to Lin, and the negative stereotypes about Asian men.

As someone who has made a living providing commentary about various issues of race and ethnicity in sports, Whitlock should know better than to tweet something like this. Quite frankly, he should be fired. As far as writers go, he's a complete hack. This comment is more proof of that, and also proof that he is too irresponsible enough to be employed by a company like FOX Sports.

Perhaps someday, Americans will be able to look at stories like this and appreciate them for what they are, instead of blowing it out of proportion, or resorting to blatant racism like Whitlock. Maybe someday.