In Like Lin

Upfront, I'm not a pro basketball fan. Don't appreciate the sport as much as I do at the high school and college level. I developed that appreciation from a lot of years riding the bench in prep school on some truly terrible teams. Have a pretty good idea of the basics of the game and am not a terribly bad coach of those trying to learn the sport, I just don't have any use for a sport where at the professional level you jam the ball into the bucket and the crowd goes wild.

If that maneuver is worth two points, then the 'three point' shot should be re-evaluated. I'm thinking someone who takes a thirty-five foot jump shot, no glass just net, gets upgraded to eleven points or so. Don't like that idea? How about a movable basket that goes up and/or down depending on the vertical jump of whomever has the ball? Just to level the playing field. Of course it's a silly idea. This is, after all, a game we pay adult men millions of dollars annually to play while children run around the school yard and play it for free.

Before the last NBA 'strike-shortened' season began (I had never known until earlier last week. Did I mention I'm not a fan?), I had no idea who Jeremy Lin was or for whom he played. As of today, the latter portion of that sentence is still true, maybe. It's a world of seven figure deals and three point shots and every man for himself. That's why the Lord gave us two hands, I suspect, to take as much as we can possibly grab. And He gave us two pockets in our trousers to put if all in.

There was a media feeding frenzy around Jeremy Lin as the Knicks put more people in seats at The Garden in recent memory and I'd be tempted to call the interest in him, flavor of the month, but that attitude didn't help those Vermont Ice Cream guys very much so I'll leave it. Is there a chance Jeremy Lin could be the next Aaron Small? And don't even think about responding with a shrug of indifferent ignorance. They may wind up with more in common than their bank balances.      
-bill kenny