The NBA stars went on a barnstorming tour around the country after the flag football game, and they played in various gymnasiums around the country. I miss them in Atlanta.
The NBA and the NFL had work stoppages that resulted in missed games. The NBA came back on Christmas Day with a great promo. The Big Three Miami Heat were the subject of a lot of attention. If the Heat hadn't won the following season, they would have been the most disappointing team in NBA history.
In a do-or-die Game 6 on the road against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, the game that will be remembered forever is the 45 points and 15 rebound performance by King James. During the regular season, there was a story that took the Heat out of the national sports page. The biggest story in sports was Jeremy Lin.
America was forced to take inventory of the way it talked about Asian-Americans in mainstream media when his star got so hot. For those of us who remember Linsanity, it may not feel like it was that long ago, but there are now adults who are only vaguely aware of February 2012. For their introduction, and for the rest of us, a ride in the Delorean, they are releasing a documentary called "38 in the Garden." Lin scored 38 points in a New York Knicks win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
When Linsanity began to spread, I was working my second job. Two of my coworkers were from New York and Harvard. They had a lot to say about Lin, but I didn't want to hear anything about the Knicks. Four days after the Lakers game, Linsanity caught my attention when he buried that top-of-the-key 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds remaining on the road against the Raptors.
Everyone got Linsanity. There was a time when the Knicks had the most recognizable player in sports, and he was also a player who was cut by two teams. I knew that a documentary about this moment in time would be made one day. If Lin didn't become an NBA star, I was concerned that a major outlet would make one too quickly.
When the events of "Press Play," "Run Ricky Run," and " Four Octobers" played out in real life, they were very entertaining. The best 30 films for 30 were from that initial group. It had been more than a decade since the last documentary aired.
There was a film called "Linsanity" that got mixed reviews. The critics didn't hate it, but it was too soon to remember everything that made Lin go to the Knicks.
America is a different place than it was at the start of the year. There was no competition in the sports documentary market. Major sporting events are only available on streaming networks and sports documentaries are released more often. Lin is no longer in the NBA and the Knicks. They are not close to title contention.
Now is the right time to take a look back at one of the most exciting Knicks runs since their 1999 NBA Finals appearance.
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