Prayers answered for Lin
Haslem remembers visiting star before the Linsanity began
MIAMI — Every once in a while you have a small story that’s so perfect it puts a big story in the proper context. Udonis Haslem had such a story Wednesday about Jeremy Lin.
By now, with Linsanity part of the sports Lin-go, everyone knows the absurdly wonderful effect of his emergence. It has all the elements of a Disney script. It’s why we fall in love with sports. Lin has started 10 NBA games and been on two Sports Illustrated covers. He has nearly doubled New York Knicks’ TV ratings. He makes $9,295 per game, but one of his game jerseys sold for $40,000.
He’s a Harvard grad. He’s American-asian. He’s Roy Hobbs. He’s Sidd Finch. He went undrafted in a sport where any player with potential is drafted and first entered most NBA team’s consciousness during a summer stint he had with Dallas.
“We had a game after his, and we heard all this noise from the fans during it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “[2010 No. 1 pick] John Wall was playing in that game, so we just figured the noise was for him.”
It wasn’t for Wall. It was for Lin. He outplayed the No. 1 pick. But that’s not the story Haslem wants to talk about. That day didn’t even have an effect on Dallas. It didn’t keep Lin for training camp. No other team did, either.
Lin spent a while in the minor leagues before signing with Golden State, but was released. Ditto with Houston. He then signed with the Knicks and sat at the end of the bench.
In late January, he played in just one game during a seven-game stretch. That appearance was the definition of garbage time: The final six minutes of a 33-point win against Charlotte.
That’s when the Knicks came to Americanairlines Arena on Jan. 27. This is where Haslem tells his story. “Before each game, I go to chapel,” Haslem said.
It is held an hour before tip-off in a small room between the two teams’ locker rooms. A handful of players attend. A pastor oversees it and asks the players if there’s anything they want to pray for. Haslem has been attending these chapels for eight NBA seasons and has heard it all. Until this one. Lin did something he never heard before. “Can you pray I don’t get cut?” Lin told the pastor and other players.
This wasn’t a joke or a passing thought. Lin already was cut twice, after all. He felt he was at the end again.
Haslem never had played against Lin, never talked with him, never even seen him before this chapel. But he looked at him that night and immediately appreciated his story.
Haslem knows what it’s like to go undrafted, to be not wanted by any team and forge a career through hard work and self-belief. “I understood where he was coming from.” The pastor prayed for Lin that night. Haslem did, too. Then Lin went out and did what he usually did. He didn’t play in the Heat’s win.
“But a week later it was da-da-da,” he says, giving the ESPN Sportscenter entry noise. Now Lin’s a known story. Haslem will go to chapel again before today’s game. He expects Lin will be there, too.
“I don’t think he’ll be praying not to get cut,” he says.