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'Linsanity' crosses border as Knicks beat Raptors

2012-02-16T17:04:00.000+08:00

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/story/2012-02-14/Linsanity-crosses-border-as-Knicks-beat-Raptors/53098444/1

By Frank Gunn, AP

Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, here driving the lane in Tuesday's win vs. the Raptors, hit a three-point shot with .5 seconds left to rally New York to its sixth consecutive victory.

TORONTO – The Winter of Lin continues.

With a game-winning three-pointer in the closing second, 23-year-old Jeremy Lin, who last month rode the end of the bench for the New York Knicks, clinched the team's sixth consecutive victory Tuesday night in Toronto.

New York rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit, tying the Raptors before Lin held the ball for the final shot. He dribbled forward, pulled up and drained it in front of Jose Calderon's outstretched hand for the 90-87 win.

"I'm just glad we actually had an opportunity to be tied at the end because we came out flat," Lin said. "I'm thankful that my coaches and teammates trusted me with the ball."

Lin scored 27 points and added a career-high 11 assists, his second double-double. Twelve of his points came in the fourth quarter, and it was Lin's finishing drive and made free throw that tied the game at 87-87 with 1:05 to play.

Coach Mike D'Antoni was asked if he considered calling a timeout as the undrafted, Harvard-educated point guard moved up the floor on the final possession.

"He's too good to call a timeout," D'Antoni said. "It makes it easy to a coach to be able to trust your point guard. He's smart enough and I have faith in him."

"I'm just glad it went like this so we can calm the Linsanity down," he joked.

Lin has more points in his first five starts (136) than anyone since the ABA-NBA merger, topping stars like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal.

Asked if he could believe this was all happening to him, Lin said, "No. But I believe in an all-powerful and all-knowing God who does miracles."

Forward Amar'e Stoudemire returned for the first time since the death of his older brother Feb. 6, and it took time to find his game. Stoudemire finished with 21 points and nine rebounds on a night that started with two failed drives to the basket.

"He seemed a little rusty, but he's obvioulsy a presence out there," said D'Antoni.

The Knicks are home Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings.

"(Lin) is a marked man now," says D'Antoni. "He's not going to sneak up on anybody anymore.

Man of the people

Lin was a huge draw in a city where Asians make up 10% of the population.

The Raptors had their first sellout (season-high 20,092) since the season opener and sold some 4,000 tickets since Friday.

At the morning shootaround, a Chinese reporter handed Lin a book of "Year of the Dragon" stamps from Canada Post. "I know you are a dragon, so this is for you, from the heart of Canadian fans," she said.

Lin also was asked by local Asian media members to address his Chinese fans.

In a subdued voice, the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent offered in Mandarin, "Thank you for watching us play basketball."

Toronto fans say Lin's popularity rivals the first visit of Yao Ming, the Chinese-born formerHouston Rockets center.

"We're here for Jeremy Lin," said Samuel Li, 21, a Chinese-Canadian from Markham, Ontario, who attended the game with his aunt and brother. "He is the first of his kind. We're Yao Ming fans, but he's 7 feet and from China. Jeremy is my size and from America. We can identify with him."

Lin's story has become especially appealing to Asian basketball players, who say his success is an inspiration.

"He speaks like us. He's heard all of the same stereotypes we've heard," said Darren Liu, a 25-year-old Asian-Canadian from Richmond Hill, Ontario, who is a former high school basketball player. "To see a guy go through all those things, to get cut by teams, it's something we can look up to and be proud of."

Changes looming?

As Stoudemire begins to get used to his new point guard, the Knicks must prepare to bring into the fold Carmelo Anthony, who is expected to return from a groin injury this week. He was on the bench in street clothes during the game.

D'Antoni said before the game that while the Knicks aren't exactly Lin's team yet, "It's becoming that way."

"He's a tough kid. You don't know that until you go into games with him and there's no way anybody could see that before the last two weeks. He came over a couple times and said 'I messed that up,' but he'll keep learning from it."

Lin committed five turnovers in the game's first 17 minutes, contributing to a Raptors lead which stretched to 17 points in the second quarter.

The Knicks charged back in the second half, as Lin cut down on turnovers, driving the lane and making visionary passes in traffic. The Raptors' lead was cut to four when Lin made a cross-body dish leading to a Stoudemire dunk with seven minutes left to play in the fourth quarter.

"We had so many bonehead plays," said Toronto coach Dwane Casey. "Right now we are putting together a hell of a three quarters, but for some reason we can't get to that fourth quarter."

New York's Iman Shumpert stole the ball from Calderon in the open court with 1:30 left and converted a layup which cut the deficit to three. By then, the nation knew it was Lin-ning Time.

Even the Los Angeles Lakers, who lost Friday to the Knicks and were at home preparing to play the Atlanta Hawks late Tuesday, erupted in their locker room after Lin's shot. Reporters noted on Twitter that Lakers forward Ron Artest ran out of the locker room screaming "Linsanity!"

The ongoing parade of puns which follows the Harvard graduate wherever he goes set up shop here, too. "Jeremy, Will you be my VaLintine?" read one sign. "Linsane in the membrane" read another. The front page of The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's national newspapers, read simply, "The unlikely Mr. Lin."

Knicks forward Jared Jeffries expects Lin's unexpected rise to continue.

"He continues to impress every night," Jeffries said. "Every game he plays better, he does more and more to help us win basketball games. You can't ask any more of a kid coming into this situation."

Casey earlier said Lin's story could make for a Hollywood ending.

"You can't say he's a flash in the pan, he's done it for five games, against some quality teams. He's taking advantage of his opportunity, and that's what you tell players all the time, be ready when your number is called — and he's done that."

Notes: Dwayne Casey was presented with his 2011 NBA Championship ring by Tyson Chandler, a member of the visiting New York Knicks. Casey was an assistant and Chandler a center for the Dallas Mavericks during their NBA Finals victory over the Miami Heat.

Linsanity: Knicks benchwarmer becomes a star

2012-02-16T12:29:00.000+08:00

http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/linsanity-knicks-benchwarmer-becomes-a-star-1.3523293

Originally published: February 11, 2012 11:00 PM
Updated: February 12, 2012 12:22 AM
By The Associated Press BRIAN MAHONEY (AP Basketball Writer)

Photo credit: AP | New York Knicks' Tyson Chandler, center, sets a pick on Minnesota Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio, right, of Spain, as Knicks' Jeremy Lin, left, chases the loose ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

NEW YORK - (AP) -- Jeremy Lin came with an intriguing story even before he escaped the New York Knicks' bench.

First American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

Harvard graduate.

Nomad who crashed on a teammate's couch when his brother's place wasn't available.

In just one week, Lin's proven he's so much more.

Turns out, he's a terrific basketball player.

"The level he is playing at right now, I have never seen it," Knicks forward Jared Jeffries said. "It is weird for a guy to come in and be a team leader who has bounced around like he has. He has inspired us to play harder because he gives it his all every day. There is nothing he doesn't do on a daily basis."

Lin scored a career-high 38 points Friday night to lead the Knicks to a 92-85 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. After scoring 28 and 23 in his first two NBA starts, he outplayed Kobe Bryant in front of a national TV audience, leaving delirious fans without their voices and his coach without the words to describe it.

"I don't know what to tell you," Mike D'Antoni said. "I have never seen this. It's not often that a guy is going to play four games, the best you are going to see, and nobody knows who he is. That is hard to do."

Lin delivered again Saturday night, scoring 20 points and making a foul shot with 4.9 seconds left in a 100-98 win at Minnesota. He also had eight assists and six rebounds in the Knicks' fifth straight victory.

Lin is drawing comparisons to Denver quarterback Tim Tebow, with the way he impacts his teammates during games and talks about his faith afterward.

Forget Tebowing. Linsanity is the new sports sensation.

"He's been amazing," Minnesota rookie Ricky Rubio, who knows a thing or two about reviving a franchise with dynamic point guard play, said before Saturday night's game. "He's playing well. He's smart and a great kid. We'll try to stop him."

Lin was perhaps on his last chance, and maybe a last resort, when D'Antoni put him in last Saturday against New Jersey. The Knicks had lost on the previous two nights to fall to 8-15, and another defeat that night would have dropped them behind the Nets in the standings and might have made the cries to fire D'Antoni even harder for team management to ignore.

Lin had slept on teammate Landry Fields' couch the night before, still refusing to get his own place as he headed into the week the Knicks would have to decide whether to cut him or guarantee his contract for the rest of the season.

Lin scored 25 points that night, and D'Antoni promoted him to the starting lineup for the next game.

A sensation was born.

The Knicks haven't looked back, even while playing without leading scorers Carmelo Anthony andAmare Stoudemire. They'll be back soon, and if Lin gets them to play at their potential, watch out.

"I think it'll be fun for the city obviously," Bryant said.

There was nothing fun about the Knicks before Lin, as fans blamed D'Antoni, Anthony and team management for the disappointing start. But as they screamed for Lin throughout Friday's game, especially after a clutch 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that was perhaps the biggest shot of the game, Madison Square Garden was again the place to be in the NBA.

"I thought that the Garden was rocking, and it was a great atmosphere," said the Lakers' Metta World Peace, who grew up in New York as Ron Artest.

Too bad the fun is being missed by so many in the city. A dispute between MSG and Time Warnercable is keeping Knicks games off that system for now, even as Asian networks line up to add Knicks games to their broadcast schedules.

The Knicks began selling Lin merchandise Friday, and one souvenir stand on the concourse level ran out before the game even started. The NBA says Lin has been the top selling jersey online since last Saturday, and the Knicks are the top-selling team this week.

All-Star Kevin Durant and Memphis' Rudy Gay were among the players tweeting about Lin afterward, and most of the questions Bryant faced were about a player whose game he'd said he wasn't familiar with only 24 hours earlier.

The only one who isn't talking about Lin is the point guard himself, a spiritual and humble person who gives credit to God, D'Antoni and his teammates.

"When I'm on the court, I try to play with all my emotion and heart," Lin said. "I just love the game, playing with this team and coach."

His heartfelt sentiments and enthusiasm on the court also captured the attention of Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.

"The excitement he has caused in the Garden, man, I hadn't seen that in a long time," Johnson told The Associated Press recently after watching Lin's first two games. "When you get a spark like this, especially in a season like this, this could carry them for a long time because they needed something to happen positive. Everything has been really negative."

Lin was waived by Golden State in December after splitting last season between the Warriors and the NBA Development League. Houston picked him up for a couple of weeks before cutting him, and the Knicks decided to give him a look.

New York had just waived its point guard, Chauncey Billups, to free up money to sign center Tyson Chandler. Three point guards couldn't run D'Antoni's offense, so the Knicks were stuck waiting onBaron Davis to recover from a herniated disk in his back. There was no indication D'Antoni would try out a fourth point guard, let alone Lin.

Now there's no rush for Davis. Not with Lin running D'Antoni's offense better than anyone.

"In D'Antoni's offense, he is looking a lot like (Steve) Nash, except a little bit more aggressive in going to the basket and scoring," Lakers center Andrew Bynum said.

D'Antoni has mentioned Nash, too, in his excitement to talk about Lin. And the Phoenix point guard is a fan as well.

"If you love sports you have to love what Jeremy Lin is doing," Nash wrote on Twitter this week. "Getting an opportunity and exploding!!"

And creating a whole new vocabulary.

At the Garden, it's Words with Lin instead of Words with Friends: Linderella; Lincredible; Super Lintendo; and of course, Linsanity, the Twitter trending word of choice.

Expect more puns as he continues to prove himself as a bona fide NBA player.

"He's not a fluke," Chandler said. "Just the confidence he plays with, the pace, the understanding of the game. You can tell when a guy isn't really that skilled but is just having a good stretch. This guy is skilled."

An Odd Game a Grandmother Can Appreciate

2012-02-16T12:28:00.000+08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/basketball/jeremy-lins-grandmother-watches-along-with-taiwan.html?ref=sports

Justin Guariglia/Redux, for The New York Times
Jeremy Lin's surprising star turn with the Knicks has created legions of basketball fans in Taiwan, including his grandmother Lin Chu A Muen.

By KEITH BRADSHER

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Long before Jeremy Lin began winning games in spectacular style for the Knicks, his Taiwanese grandmother, Lin Chu A Muen, came to the United States to look after him as a young child while his parents worked. She diapered and fed him and, as he grew up, cooked big batches of fried rice with dried turnips and egg, a Taiwanese favorite.

On Wednesday night, Lin Chu, now 85, went to a sports restaurant to watch a delayed broadcast of her grandson’s latest heroics, a last-second shot against the Toronto Raptors that propelled the Knicks to their sixth straight victory since he emerged out of nowhere and took charge of the team.

Lin Chu’s face lighted up every time her grandson came on the screen. But each time he fell or was knocked down or elbowed by the Raptors, who played a pugnacious, battering defense against him, her face froze.

“I don’t know too much about basketball, but this is not how it should be done — why do they do it?” she said with dismay. “I know nothing about basketball. I only know when Jeremy puts the ball in the basket he has done a good thing.”

Much of Taiwan has been watching Lin’s extraordinary performance over the last week and a half with almost as much emotion as Lin Chu and perhaps with more knowledge of the sport. Newspapers and magazines have almost monotonously similar front pages with photographs of Lin. Offices go quiet each morning when Lin plays in night games on the other side of the world, as workers try to follow the court action without being heard by their colleagues.

Lin Chi Chung, Jeremy Lin’s 63-year-old uncle, said he kept working at his job as a warehouse manager Wednesday morning as the Knicks-Raptors game was being played, knowing he would watch it that night. But almost none of the other 60 people at the warehouse showed the same discipline.

“All the senior managers at my office and all the sales managers immediately updated me — they all had iPads they were watching,” he said.

Politicians are also paying attention. Taiwan’s democracy is famously fractious, not just between the ruling Nationalist Party and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, but among factions within each group. But on Lin, they are united. And Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, caused some amusement this week by wishing that his cabinet showed the same team spirit as Lin did.

Lin Chu said her grandson had always been a mild-mannered boy who shared his possessions with others, and indeed Lin is drawing plaudits for doing exactly what a smart, and poised, point guard should — passing the ball to teammates when they are in a position to score.

While the Taiwanese news media have breathlessly suggested that Lin Chu taught basketball to her grandson, she emphatically denied this.

“My son, when he came home from work, would always take the kids to play basketball,” she said. “He took Jeremy to the basketball courts as soon as he could walk.”

The hunger of the Taiwanese news media for every detail of Jeremy Lin’s life has proved a problem for his grandmother and uncle, who live together. So many reporters and photographers camped outside their home in the Taipei suburbs that they briefly fled last weekend to their ancestral village, Beidou, in south-central Taiwan, only to be pursued there by reporters.

The two agreed to an interview Wednesday night in Taipei only after taking elaborate precautions to avoid paparazzi. This subterfuge included meeting at a cake shop in a nearly deserted neighborhood and then driving a circuitous route in the uncle’s car while watching to see if anyone was following. No one was, and they then proceeded to dinner and the ballgame at the Brass Monkey sports restaurant.

While in the car, Lin’s uncle volunteered his views on one of the most contentious questions on the Internet about Jeremy Lin and his family: whether they are Taiwanese or Chinese. “For sure, they are Taiwanese,” Lin Chi Chung said. “I spoke to Jeremy Lin’s father, who is my younger brother, and he said, ‘Make sure you point this out.’ ”

Both of Jeremy Lin’s parents were born in Taiwan and retain dual citizenship in Taiwan and the United States, Lin Chi Chung said. Jeremy Lin was born in California and has American citizenship but has been offered dual citizenship in Taiwan as well by the foreign ministry here, his uncle added.

Lin Chi Chung said that he and Jeremy Lin’s father were eighth-generation descendants of immigrants from Fujian province in southeastern China who moved to Taiwan in 1707. They were part of a large wave of Fujian migration from which most of Taiwan’s current residents are descended, and these descendants tend to identify themselves as Taiwanese.

A senior official of Zhejiang province in east-central China suggested over the weekend that Jeremy Lin’s ancestral home was there because his maternal grandmother grew up in the province before moving to southernmost Taiwan in the late 1940s, at the end of China’s civil war.

A devout Christian, she was married for a while to a Taiwanese Christian pastor, gave birth to Jeremy Lin’s mother and raised her, and later moved to the United States.

While acknowledging that the maternal grandmother is still fond of mainland China, where she sponsors a scholarship at her hometown’s high school, Lin Chi Chung said that mainland Chinese culture and Taiwanese culture both dictate that Jeremy Lin’s identity should be determined by his father’s side of the family.

“We are a male-dominated society, so while I know there are relatives on the mother’s side on the mainland, you should go by the father’s side, and that is Taiwanese,” he said.

Lin Chu remained quiet for the most part during the discussion of her grandson’s identity, preferring to discuss his basketball abilities. She said that she was struggling to understand her grandson’s basketball games because while Lin’s father has been sending her videos of the games for years, she has not tried to watch them until the past few weeks.

“My grandson would say, ‘Did you see the films?’ and I hadn’t, but I would tell him I did,” she said.

Jeremy Lin’s grandmother and uncle have agreed that they will only watch delayed broadcasts of Jeremy Lin’s games, after she has been told the outcome. The reason, Lin Chu said, was simple: she needs to limit stress.

Lin Chu watches her diet. She ordered a large salad at the sports restaurant while watching the game, but ate very little of it.

When Lin scored the final 6 points of the game to give the Knicks a 90-87 victory, the restaurant patrons threw up their arms in exultant cheers. Lin Chu stayed seated but grinned broadly, her eyes sparkling.

Then she and her eldest son walked quietly to the restaurant door, cast a wary eye for paparazzi and headed for their car and the half-hour drive home. Ahead were more games this week featuring her grandson, and, perhaps, more chances to celebrate.

At the Buzzer, It’s All Lin

2012-02-15T19:51:00.004+08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/sports/basketball/at-the-buzzer-its-all-jeremy-lin-as-knicks-edge-raptors.html

Mike Cassese/Reuters
The Knicks' Jeremy Lin drove to the basket against the Raptors in Toronto on Tuesday. Lin sank the game-winner with a half-second to play.

By HOWARD BECK

TORONTO — The clock was running down — on the game, on the Knicks and on a mystical streak that was teetering on the edge of disappointment. The seconds kept disappearing until Jeremy Lin stopped his dribble, pulled up and launched another miracle.

The 3-point shot swished with a half-second remaining Tuesday night, lifting the Knicks to a 90-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors and setting off pandemonium at Air Canada Centre, where fans momentarily adopted the N.B.A.’s newest star as their own. Some 20,000 Canadians had just witnessed a growing legend.

The shot completed a furious comeback from a 17-point deficit and extended the Knicks’ Lin-inspired winning streak to six, with no sign of abating.

“I’m just glad it went like this, so we could calm the ‘Linsanity’ down a little bit,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said.

There is little chance of that happening. Lin scored 27 points — his sixth straight game with at least 20 — and handed out 11 assists. He forced some shots, committed 8 turnovers and struggled to contain Jose Calderon (25 points).

Yet the game ended as so many have since Lin became the Knicks’ unlikely star: with giddy celebration.

“It’s pretty amazing what he’s doing, man,” said Amar’e Stoudemire, who rejoined the team after a weeklong sabbatical following his brother’s death. “I can’t really explain it.”

Of all the thrilling moments Lin has had since becoming the Knicks’ point guard 11 days ago, this might have been the most unlikely. The Knicks (14-15) did not have a lead in the final three quarters and trailed by 12 early in the fourth.

Tyson Chandler battled foul trouble all night. Stoudemire battled fatigue and rust, going 8 for 22 from the field. Lin missed four free throws in the fourth quarter. Calderon and Leandro Barbosa (13 points) kept whizzing through the Knicks’ defense.

The Raptors (9-21) rarely let Lin get to the basket without a bump, a bang or a bruise. He spent a considerable amount of time on his back. But he never stopped attacking, and the Knicks found their defensive conscience just in time.

Iman Shumpert shut down Calderon in the fourth quarter, holding him scoreless. The Knicks held Toronto to 12 points in the period. Chandler blocked shots by Barbosa and DeMar DeRozan, and pulled down three offensive rebounds — the last two leading directly to the Knicks’ winning points.

Lin drove in for a layup and a 3-point play to tie the score, 87-87, with 1 minute 5 seconds left. On the Knicks’ final possession, Shumpert missed a bank shot, but Chandler got the rebound and tossed it to Lin on the perimeter with about 10 seconds left.

D’Antoni chose not to call a timeout, showing an unyielding faith in a point guard who just two weeks ago was not even in the rotation.

“He’s too good to even call a timeout,” D’Antoni said, adding, “That makes it easy for a coach that’s able just to trust the point guard.”

Lin glanced back briefly, to make sure D’Antoni was O.K. with an isolation play. He then called off the pick and lined up Calderon in front of him, dribbling as the seconds elapsed. Calderon, perhaps not respecting Lin’s range, gave him the space. Lin — who was just 3 for 18 from behind the arc this season — fired away.

“I understand my percentage is low, and that’s obviously a criticism people have of me,” Lin said. “I’m thankful that my coach and my teammates trust me with the ball at the end of the game.”

Rasual Butler missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer, and the crowd again erupted for Lin, who said he “actually didn’t even register that.”

This was billed as Asian Heritage Night, but the crowd did not seem to know what to do with Lin. There were cheers during pregame introductions, periodic boos when he had the ball, then cheers again when he scored.

There was plenty of love in a series of holiday-themed signs like, “Jeremy Lin, Will You Be My vaLINtine?” Another hailed “The Asian Linsation.” The greatest tribute came on the newsstands, where Sports Illustrated featured Lin on its cover, under the headline “Against All Odds.”

Stoudemire was just happy to be part of the fun after a week spent mourning his older brother, Hazell, who was killed in a car accident. Stoudemire returned with a new tattoo, a single teardrop on his right cheekbone.

“Forever crying inside,” Stoudemire explained, choking up. “It’s just hard to explain how close me and my brother was. He was more like a father figure, more like a mentor and a brother. He’s the reason I play basketball now. He’s the reason why I made it to where I am now. A big part of my success.”

After Lin’s final shot ripped through the net, Stoudemire and Chandler just stared at each other in happy disbelief.

“Then we started hugging each other and just dancing at halfcourt, as if we won a championship,” Stoudemire said. “I was simply amazed by, and still somewhat amazed, by the way he’s playing.”

REBOUNDS

Tyson Chandler and Toronto Coach Dwane Casey, who each played a critical role in the Dallas Mavericks’ title run last year, enjoyed a brief reunion before tip-off. Chandler presented Casey with his championship ring. ... Jeremy Lin also sought out Casey for a hug before the game. Casey was Lin’s coach on the Mavericks’ summer league team in 2010, when Lin impressed scouts, which led to his first N.B.A. contract, with the Golden State Warriors. On Monday, Casey told Toronto reporters that he wondered why Lin wanted to be an N.B.A. player. “You’re smarter than all of us,” Casey said he told Lin. “You’ve got an honors degree from Harvard.” Casey added: “He did a heck of a job in our summer league, almost made our team there, but numbers caught him. He’s a wonderful young man. I’m happy for him.”

Anthony about to enter Dragon’s lair

2012-02-13T16:08:00.003+08:00

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/melo_about_to_enter_dragon_lair_ZpcacDHk4eSfr0EbqkGM2L#ixzz1mFOIbiYB

By MIKE VACCARO

Last Updated:12:23 PM, February 12, 2012

Posted:1:42 AM, February 12, 2012

We are, as Kevin Costner, as Jim Garrison, says in “JFK,” through the looking glass, people. White is black. Up is down. Upside-down is rightside up. Digital is analog. Fire is ice. Day is night.

Jeremy Lin is an NBA phenomenon.

More, he is a pop culture marvel. A reporter walked through the Garden stands Friday night solely to compute the percentage of Asians among the 19,783 there for the Knicks-Lakers game (His guess: 3-4 percent). Orders for No. 17 jerseys are threatening to tie up phone lines and snarl Internet connections.

Here’s something for you: Jeremy Lin was born in 1988, which was the Year of the Dragon. It is now 2012 — yes, the Year of the Dragon and, better, he was recalled from the D-League on Jan. 23 — Chinese New Year.

According to ChineseZodiac.com, children born under this fifth position in the Chinese zodiac are “driven, unafraid of challenges, and willing to take risks. They’re passionate in all they do and they do things in grand fashion.” Check. Check. Check. Check.

“Unfortunately, this passion and enthusiasm can leave Dragons feeling exhausted,” and if you’ve seen Lin in the third and fourth quarters of games, he’s like a basketball Jim Brown, looking on the verge of collapse before driving to the basket again, preferably with bookend 7-footers ready to do the Malachi Crunch on him.

All of this is endlessly fascinating and fun.

Soon enough, we will be forced to ponder the larger matters at hand: What happens when the varsity comes back?

You have heard plenty of folks get carried away by what Lin did in his first week as a Knicks regular, by the fact he did almost all of this without the looming presence of two-thirds of the Knicks’ Big Three. Amar’e Stoudemire has missed all four of Lin’s starts, mourning the death of his brother. Carmelo Anthony missed all but six minutes of those victories over the Jazz, Wizards, Lakers and Timberwolves, tending to his balky groin. There are some, caught up in this giddy moment, the Knicks on a five-game win streak after last night’s frantic 100-98 comeback win in Minnesota, who think: why not leave well enough alone?

That’s absurd, of course. But the elephant in the room is this: How will Melo-Mare adjust to having this shiny new co-star?

Stoudemire will benefit immediately because, even if it’s premature to draft those Lin-as-Steve Nash comps just yet, he definitely does mimic Nash’s skill sets. And those talents all but ushered Stoudemire into the NBA and elevated him to one of its most dangerous offensive weapons. Two born pick-and-rollers running the pick-and-roll? When the lab opens Tuesday in Toronto, it ought to be fascinating to watch.

It’s Anthony that folks worry about, and maybe that’s fair because the offense has stalled often this year with the ball in his hands, and maybe that’s unfair because so many of those possessions featured Toney Douglas (and no piling on him; he’s not a natural point guard) dribbling aimlessly for 15 seconds before starting the offense — which too often meant tossing the ball to Anthony and getting out of the way.

With Lin, Anthony doesn’t have to worry about setting anyone else up. He only has to worry about his role in the offense. It’s a much better fit.

“It’s like when we had Chauncey [Billups],” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said Friday. “Chauncey had the ball in his hands a lot. Melo had it a lot. Melo is one of the best pick-and-roll guys. … Hopefully now we have two of the best. I only see it helping. I don’t see it as a problem. There will be some adjustments on both parts, but I think it’ll work.”

Those who dismiss Anthony as an irredeemable gunner have short memories, they forget he elevated every one of his teammates during Syracuse’s run to the 2003 NCAA title, conveniently omit he was an indispensable — and unselfish — element in Redeem Team’s dash to gold at the Beijing Olympics three years ago.

If anything, his track record screams that he, as much as anyone, will embrace having Lin as a teammate. To which he undoubtedly will hear a righteous roar of rebuttal:

You better.

Just Lin, Baby! 10 Lessons Jeremy Lin Can Teach Us Before We Go To Work Monday Morning

2012-02-13T11:34:00.002+08:00

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/02/11/9-lessons-jeremy-lin-can-teach-us-before-we-go-to-work-monday-morning/

Eric Jackson, Contributor

I cover the business of technology

Lin-sanity has swept up the NBA over the last week. Now it seems like the phenomenon has gone worldwide.

Friday’s 38 point performance by Harvard grad Jeremy Lin for the New York Knicks against the LA Lakers was his greatest performance yet as a starter, since he burst on to the scene and propelled the team to 4 straight wins.

Lin now has over 200,000 followers on Twitter. He’s got over 800,000 on Weibo – including 200,000 new ones in the 24 hour period after beating the Lakers.

But there’s more to this story than basketball. This isn’t just a modern-day, real-life version of the Hoosiers movie. The Jeremy Lin story is incredibly popular because we can all see a little bit of ourselves in this man’s struggles and now successes.

What can all of us learn from this young man — and how can we apply these same lessons to our own lives when we go back to work on Monday morning?

1. Believe in yourself when no one else does. Lin’s only the 3rd graduate from Harvard to make it to the NBA. He’s also one of only a handful of Asian-Americans to make it. He was sent by the Knicks to play for their D-League team 3 weeks ago in Erie, PA. He’d already been cut by two other NBA teams before joining the Knicks this year. You’ve got to believe in yourself, even when no one else does.

2. Seize the opportunity when it comes up. Lin got to start for the Knicks because they had to start him. They had too many injuries. Baron Davis was gone. The other point guards were out. Carmelo Anthony was injured. Amare Stoudemire had to leave the team because of a family death. Lin could have squandered the opportunity and we would have never have noticed. But he made the most of it. You never know when opportunities are going to arise in life. Often, they’re when you least expect them. Make the most of them. Don’t fritter them away.

3. Your family will always be there for you, so be there for them. It wasn’t until a few days ago that Lin got his contract guaranteed by the Knicks for the rest of the season. Before that, he could have been cut at any time. He had to sleep on his brother’s couch on the Lower East Side to get by. His family always believed in him and picked him up when he could have gotten down on himself. That made him continue to believe. If you want your family to believe in you like that, you’ve got to be there for them too when they need it.

4. Find the system that works for your style. Lin isn’t Michael Jordanor Kobe Bryant. He’s not a pure scorer. He’s a passer and distributor – who can also score very well. It didn’t work for him in Golden State or Houston – where he was before landing at the Knicks. But Mike D’Antoni’s system at the Knicks has been perfect for him to show off his strengths. You’ve got to do your best to understand what your strengths are and then ensure that you’re in a system (a job or organization or industry) that is a good fit for those strengths. Otherwise, people overlook the talents you bring to the table.

5. Don’t overlook talent that might exist around you today on your team. You probably manage people at your own company today. Are you sure you don’t have a Jeremy Lin living among you now? How do you know that “Mike” couldn’t do amazing things if you gave him a new project to run with? How do you know “Sarah” isn’t the right person to take the open job in London that you’ve been talking over with your colleagues? We put people around us in boxes. He’s from Harvard. He’s Asian-American. Not sure he can play. How many assumptions have you made about talent around you? Don’t be like the General Managers in Golden State and Houston, and let talent slip through your fingers. With all their money, scouts, and testing, they didn’t have a clue what they had in their hands. Do you know what your people (or even yourself) is really capable of? Take off the blinders of assumptions you wear when you look at the world.

6. People will love you for being an original, not trying to be someone else. You’ve got to be you. You can’t be some 2nd rate copy of Michael Jordan. There will never be another Michael Jordan. Just be Jeremy Lin — yourself. Whatever that is. That doesn’t mean you don’t work hard — it just means you find what you’re good at and do it. Fans will love you for being you, just like they love Jeremy Lin. Judy Garland said it best:

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

7. Stay humble. If you one day are lucky enough to have newspapers want to put you on the cover in order to sell more, don’t let it get to your head. It’s been remarkable watching how humble Lin remains through all this media frenzy. It makes his teammates and fans love him that much more.

8. When you make others around you look good, they will love you forever. I didn’t know how good Tyson Chandler was, until I saw him playing with Jeremy Lin. Lin has set Chandler up many times over the last week for easy dunks because he drew the defense and then passed the ball. That’s partly why the Knicks are playing so well. They are all working harder to share the ball with others. And it’s beautiful to watch. And when the media swarms Lin, he tells them how good his teammates are. Do the same with your peers and reports.

9. Never forget about the importance of luck or fate in life. Some people believe in God, some in destiny, some in luck. Whatever you believe in, be grateful for it.

10. Work your butt off. Lin couldn’t have seized his opportunity if he hadn’t worked like crazy for years perfecting his skills. There are no short cuts to hard work. Success is a by product of that. If you’ve got a Tiger Mom who’s always pushed you to work hard, great. If not, let your conscience be your own Tiger Mom! Get up early, stay up late. Nobody gave Lin any free passes. Why should you get any? You can only control what you control and that means you’ve got to work harder than anyone else you know.

I hope the Lin-sanity continues. And I hope we all can apply these lessons to our own work and family life.

There’s a great line from a New York Times article on Lin and his faith which is worth it for all of us to remember:

“suffering produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.”

Even While Struggling, Lin Finds Way to Lift Knicks Again

2012-02-12T14:59:00.001+08:00

February 11, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sports/basketball/lin-lifts-knicks-past-timberwolves.html

By PAT BORZI

MINNEAPOLIS — Long after he helped lift the Knicks to their fifth consecutive victory, Jeremy Lin hobbled to his locker as if he had been repeatedly kicked in the shins. Lin said he was not injured, just worn out after his seventh game in 10 days, a grueling stretch he never faced at Harvard.

“I’m just a little numb,” he said. “I can’t feel my legs right now.”

No wonder. Although Lin scored 20 points in the Knicks’ 100-98 victory over Minnesota for his fifth consecutive 20-point game, he struggled to do so. Lin, the newest Knicks sensation, shot 8 for 24 from the field, had six turnovers, and managed only 5 points in the second half.

But he still became the first player in N.B.A. history to post at least 20 points and 7 assists in his first four starts, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, while outplaying the flashy Minnesota rookie point guard Ricky Rubio. And he burnished his growing legacy at the finish, making the second of two free throws for the go-ahead point with 4.9 seconds to play as the Knicks, who trailed most of the second half, eked out the victory.

Lin collected the last of his eight assists with a feed to Steve Novak for the game-tying 3-pointer with 36.2 seconds to play.

“I might not listen to him anymore,” Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni said with a smile. “He said: ‘Don’t take me out. I’m good. I’m good.’

“He was terrific. I know he got a little tired and couldn’t finish the way he normally would, But his leadership on the floor is invaluable. That’s why sometimes you have to ride him.”

Lin continued his remarkable play a night after his 38-point performance against the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden, with 15 points in the first half Saturday on an assortment of drives and jumpers. But by the end of the third quarter, he appeared exhausted — breathing hard and leaving layups and jumpers short on the rim.

Lin scored only 3 points in the fourth quarter.

But the Knicks, still without Carmelo Anthony (right groin strain) and Amar’e Stoudemire, who attended his brother’s funeral Saturday in Lake Wales, Fla., won anyway with bench contributions from Iman Shumpert (20 points before fouling out) and Novak (15).

That helped the Knicks overcome another big effort from Kevin Love, who had 32 points and 21 rebounds.

The Knicks also limited the Wolves to 3-of-19 shooting and 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“Tonight was a tough game, and just really didn’t know if we could find the energy,” center Tyson Chandler said. “As soon as we took the lead, I knew we would lock in and finish the game.”

The Timberwolves, of course, start their own point-guard sensation in Rubio, the tousle-haired Spanish rookie who, unlike Lin, arrived with a high profile and higher expectations.

It was Rubio, under pressure from Landry Fields, setting up for the final shot. But he lost his dribble out of bounds with 1.7 seconds to play. Bill Walker added one of two free throws with 1.3 seconds left.

“I struggled a lot tonight,” Lin said. “They did a good job of playing me in the gray areas, making my decisions not necessarily clear.”

A hint of Linsanity surfaced in the frigid Upper Midwest as a small but vocal contingent of Asian fans scattered throughout the capacity crowd of 20,232 at Target Center cheered when Lin was introduced before the game. Others chanted “overrated.”

The Timberwolves wore facsimile uniforms of the Minnesota Muskies, briefly an American Basketball Association franchise in the late 1960s, and even carried the conceit to the scoreboard, which read “Muskies” where “Wolves” normally is.

Rubio began the game guarding Lin. The Timberwolves trying to force Lin to his left while instructing the burly center Nikola Pekovic (21 points, 13 rebounds) to slide into the lane if Lin tried to drive.

But in the final 10 seconds, Lin managed to drive to his right and draw the foul, putting himself in position for another memorable moment.

His 109 points in his first four starts is the most by an N.B.A. player since the league absorbed four A.B.A. teams in 1976; Allen Iverson had the previous high of 101.

Now, all Lin wants to do is catch his breath.

“I feel like I’m in a dream right now,” he said. “Tomorrow is an off-day. I can’t wait.”

Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin impresses Kobe Bryant, among others

2012-02-12T13:19:00.001+08:00

http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/nba/article/1129855--knicks-sensation-jeremy-lin-impresses-kobe-bryant-among-others

Jeremy Lin of the Knicks grabs a rebound in Friday night's win over the Lakers, who play in Toronto on Sunday.

JIM MCISAAC/MCT

NEW YORK—“Lincredible!” exclaimed the back page of Saturday’s New York Post.

“Just Lin, baby” read the bold headline in the New York Daily News.

Point guard Jeremy Lin is the talk of New York, the nation . . . and the world after he validated his four-game rise from anonymity to stardom with a career-high 38 points in leading the New York Knicks past the visiting Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 on Friday night.

Lin has carried the Knicks to a season-tying four-game winning streak, which they can extend Saturday night when they play at the Minnesota Timberwolves.

U.S. media outlets are not alone in the coverage of the undrafted point guard from Harvard — the NBA’s first American-born Chinese or Taiwanese player — who has emerged from the end of the bench to become a world-wide phenomenon in a week. Just since Thursday his Twitter followers have risen by 50,000 to a total of more more 155,000.

The Asian media are so taken with Lin, crowding him at shootarounds and post-game, that they are concerned for his well-being.

Lin, whose previous high for the season before the streak had been nine points in limited playing time, has been living with his brother, a dental student at New York University in Manhattan, and sister-in-law. Lin also spent a night on the couch of teammate Landry Fields.

So one of the foreign reporters told Lin after Friday’s victory that his Asian fans are worried about his unsettled living situation.

The 23-year-old thanked those fans for their concern — and assured them he is working on it.

Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant said before he arrived at Madison Square Garden that he knew very little about Lin, who played in only 29 games last season for the Golden State Warriors and was cut. The Houston Rockets also had Lin with them for a time before releasing him.

But after Lin brought a frenzied crowd of 19,763 to its feet time and time again Friday with soft jumpers, spinning drives to the basket and crafty passes, Bryant is beginning to grasp what “Linsanity” is all about.

“Players don’t usually come out of nowhere,” Bryant said after Lin helped New York snap a nine-game losing streak to Los Angeles that dated to February 2007. “If you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. But no one ever noticed.”

They’re noticing now especially because the Knicks (12-15) have been without all-star forward Carmelo Anthony, who has a strained groin, and forward Amar’e Stoudemire, who has been with family in Florida following the death of an older brother.

Lin has made believers of once-skeptical teammates and coaches.

“He’s not a fluke,” said Knicks centre Tyson Chandler, adding, “You can tell when a guy isn’t really that skilled but is just having a good stretch. This guy is skilled. He’s fast. He gives the defense a problem, and he’s really crafty at the rim.”

That Lin even has had the chance to post four games in a row of 20-plus points is more remarkable given the Knicks were considering releasing him in anticipation of veteran guard Baron Davis finally getting healthy and making his season debut. With Davis remaining out, and the absence of Anthony and Stoudemire, Lin has made the most of his shot.

And quite literally. During the winning streak, with Lin starting the last three games, he has shot 57.5 per cent. He has scored 114 points (28.5 per game) with 32 assists, 15 rebounds and seven steals.

Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni is at a loss to explain the exploits of his sudden star, saying it’s a “once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

“It is not often that a guy is going to play four games, the best you are going to see, and nobody knows who he is,” D’Antoni said.

“I am not really too worried about proving anything to anybody,” Lin said. “As a team, we are growing and I think everyone is buying into it and that is why we are becoming more dangerous.”

The slender 6-foot-3 guard outplayed Bryant in drilling 13 of 23 field-goal attempts Friday, including two of four from three-point range, with seven assists and four rebounds. Bryant closed with 34 points, hitting only 11 of 29 from the floor. He was one of five from beyond the arc with 10 rebounds and one assist.

“It is a great story,” Bryant said. “It is a testament to perseverance and hard work. It is a good example to kids everywhere. I am sure he has put in a great deal of work to always have that belief in himself. Now, he has the opportunity to show it.”

Lin averaged 2.6 points and 1.4 assists in 29 games last year for Golden State. He also played 20 games for the Reno Bighorns of the NBA Developmental League, averaging 18 points and 4.3 assists.

He emphasizes that opportunity is everything. “I wouldn’t say Golden State wasn’t suitable for me,” he said. “I think I have grown as a player. In terms of personnel, there is more opportunity here.”

Jeremy Lin: Even Kobe bows to his star power

2012-02-12T13:12:00.001+08:00

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski_jeremy_lin_knicks_lakers_021112

Kobe Bryant called Lin's sudden rise to stardom a "great story." "It's a testament to perseverance and hard work," Bryant said.
(Getty Images)

NEW YORK – Somehow, the most improbable story in NBA history found himself in the most improbable place on Friday night: The ball in his hands, Madison Square Garden on its feet, and the fourth quarter genius of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant determined to obliterate this burgeoning mythology. Out of Bryant, had come a barrage: twisted, contorted fades, a self-pass off the backboard, the A-list arsenal out of the world’s most gifted scorer.

Somehow, Jeremy Lin never flinched. Somehow, Jeremy Lin never let himself become a spectator, never stopped to wonder what in the world he was doing out here. The ball was so safe, so snug, in his hands. There was such an easy effortlessness to the downright diabolical manner with which he dismantled the Lakers and Bryant. Sheer hysteria had thundered down on the Garden floor, a phenomenon called Linsanity, and the most polished, most poised, presence happened to be Lin.

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This kid out of nowhere – out of Harvard University, out of the Reno Bighorns and Erie Bayhawks – had done it again, done it with a devastating 38 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals in the Knicks’ 92-85 victory over the Lakers.

“Players don’t come out of nowhere,” Bryant said.

What he was trying to say was this: The talent’s there, but sometimes the opportunity isn’t. It takes the right circumstances and timing, the right coach, right system. And sometimes, it takes desperation to try anything. And for these New York Knicks, well, Jeremy Lin constituted anything.

Four games, four victories for these Knicks. Four games, and he’s transformed these Knicks in a way that no one can fully describe, fully believe. Bryant has made a career out of torching the Knicks, leaving the Garden to ovations. He’s scored 50 points here, even 60.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Bryant had been bemused over this Lin story. He wanted details, wanted to know the fuss. “Well, he’s got to deal with me now,” Bryant said. Somehow, Lin did. Another crescendo for him, another staggering performance in a week where he had gone for 25 points and seven assists, 28 and eight and 23 and 10.

Here came the Lakers, and here was Lin popping 3-pointers and twisting layups and free throw upon clutch free throw. Here came Lin to stop Kobe, and yes, stop the NBA cold.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni marveled. “I have never seen this. What he’s doing is amazing.”

It isn’t the scoring with Lin. No one in the history of the NBA has scored as much in his first three starts, but this has nothing to do with the statistics. It’s the feel, the touch, the spirit and the purity of it all. No Amar’e Stoudemire. No Carmelo Anthony. And it doesn’t matter what spare parts are thrown together with Lin because he’s elevated everyone, transformed five fingers into a fist.

“It’s a completely different team,” center Tyson Chandler said. “You can’t look at this team the same.”

Chandler won a title with the Dallas Mavericks a season ago, played with Jason Kidd and hadn’t come to New York to sell false hopes with false prophets. Four games with Lin, and he knows what they have with him. “He just has a pace and a confidence,” Chandler said. “He just keeps coming. I haven’t seen anything like this. He’s taken us all by surprise … us, the league.

“He’s not a fluke.”

That’s a message to Anthony: Don’t mess this up. Stoudemire will return to the Knicks on Monday, and Lin will be a godsend for him. They’ll play pick-and-roll basketball, fit seamlessly together. Out with a groin injury, Anthony watched Lin with a pensive eye, at times devoid of the exuberance of his teammates, at others rollicking along with everyone else. He has to understand: Despite a max contract, his All-Star seasons, his face on the Garden marquee, suddenly Anthony has to fit into Jeremy Lin’s Knicks. Just four games, and yet that’s no exaggeration. Four games, and here’s an unmistakable truth: These Knicks are following Lin.

“We are a team,” D’Antoni said. “His personality has rubbed off on the guys.”

Before D’Antoni had run out of players to try for these Knicks a week ago, before he had thrown Lin into a game with the New Jersey Nets, the Knicks’ front office had a decision to make: Do we guarantee Lin’s contract for the rest of the season, or release him with Tuesday’s deadline?

Knicks executive Mark Warkentien had been calling trusted associates in the NBA’s D-League, league sources told Yahoo! Sports, and asking them: Who does Lin play like? Who’s a good comparison? The Knicks had to make a decision based on old information, old scouting reports. And then, finally, D’Antoni dispatched Lin into the game against the Nets. Here was the answer, the unfolding of a week that has made Lin a sporting and cultural spectacle.

“A great story,” Bryant said. “It’s a testament to perseverance and hard work. A good example for kids everywhere.”

Those who worked with Lin in the D-League a year ago will tell you: He’s so grounded, so smart, so savvy, that he’s the perfect person to keep his bearings within a world exploding around him. Lin shrugs and simply says, “I am not really too worried about proving anything to anybody.”

All these years of futility here, all these saviors marching into Madison Square Garden with the biggest names, the biggest reputations. Stephon Marbury and Isiah Thomas. Larry Brown and Carmelo Anthony. Big noise, big promises, and yet dysfunction and disillusionment rule the day. Soon, it’s onto someone else. Someone else is coming, and fresh salvation promises to be on its way. It’s the ultimate shell game with these Knicks, a reflection on a contaminated franchise culture.

For the first time, it feels like the Knicks opened a window and let the freshest of air inside the building. This time, salvation had come off the waiver wire and crashes on his brother’s couch in the city. This time, salvation still gets stopped at Madison Square Garden security, suspected of being one of the team’s trainers – not its point guard.

Salvation is fleeting and often temporary, but something about Lin’s game seems to have such staying power. “He comes up with ideas,” D’Antoni said. “He’s reading everything well. That’s rare.”

So rare, so improbable. Everyone stayed inside the Garden, listened to Lin’s on-court interview over the Garden sound system. M-V-P, they chanted. M-V-P. People stayed in seats, screaming, yelling, snapping photos. Out there, all alone, those gangly arms, that baby face – well, Lin hardly looks the part. That’s the beauty of him, of this story. That nothing is how it’s supposed to be, how we’ve ever witnessed a star burst onto the scene.

Twenty-four hours earlier, and Kobe Bryant had been bemused over the Jeremy Lin story. Kobe always came to the Garden, and always had his way.

And now, the fourth quarter, the victory, the storyline, the thunder tumbling down onto the Garden floor belonged to the improbable, incredible Jeremy Lin. “Enjoy it,” Bryant would say late in the locker room. “They’ll receive judgment next season.”

This was Bryant’s grudging show of respect, his way of acknowledging this kid had become worth seeking a measure of revenge. The greatest player on the planet had come to obliterate the mythology of Jeremy Lin, and only played a part in growing it. Everyone left Madison Square Garden a little dazed on Friday night, a little stunned and perhaps no one so much as Jeremy Lin himself.

All hell is breaking loose around these Knicks, around this league, and Jeremy Lin keeps coming and coming and coming. Somehow, he was the biggest star on the floor Friday. Somehow, this night, this week, this point guard job, belong to him.

Somehow, Jeremy Lin.

紐約直擊這一夜林書豪解答所有疑問

2012-02-12T12:05:00.005+08:00

中國時報　2012.02.12
http://news.chinatimes.com/2009Cti/Common/2009Cti-News-Print/0,5201,110501x112012021200109,00.html

龔邦華／現場觀察

　不用再懷疑了，這是真的，是真的，真的是真的！經過與湖人隊的比賽，再也不會有人問：「Is Lin for real？」的問題了。曾經問過的人想必覺得自己有點蠢，包括我在內。

　坐在記者席看這場比賽，感受到了麥迪遜花園廣場少見的能量。很難想像，那股巨大的、發亮的、熱情的能源，是來自一個平常很謙虛有禮的小伙子身上。這場對湖人之戰，有林書豪上場和沒有林書豪上場，差得還真多。他那股不要命似的拚勁，那個我就是不怕的越挫越勇，那種不受壓力影響的心理素質，就像一道強力電流，貫穿全場。讓在場觀看的群眾如癡如狂。

　賽後的記者會上，他承認自己在場上場下判若兩人。他說：「我投注了我所有的情緒，我是用心在打，我毫無保留。」說到這裡，他自己都有點害羞地說：「『我的朋友常笑我，你在場上幹嘛那麼激動呀？』我想我就是太愛打球了。」不過，他從不認為他是為自己打球，他常常說，我是為球隊打球，我是為我愛的上帝打球。

　或許正因如此，他有一種與生俱來的感染力。林書豪在哈佛時期的教練講了最一針見血的一句話︰「林書豪最特別的地方是，他有能力讓身邊的人變的更好。真的，一有他在，比賽就活起來了！當比數接近時，派他上場，就會拉開差距。不管對手是誰，對他沒有太大差別。」所以面對湖人隊，在激烈的肢體衝撞中，林書豪還是會殺出一條活路。

　開口上帝閉口上帝的豪小子，可能沒有想到，他自己正在扮演一個「救世主」的角色。因為他，尼克終止連敗，而且還四連勝。因為他，教練的位子保住了。因為他，整體而言缺乏生氣的美國職業籃球又活了過來。因為他，紐約這個城市被點燃了。因為他，許許多多不為外界看好的、老是被忽視的人，找到了可以激勵自己的力量。

　在美國採訪這麼多年，我從沒有目睹過一整個場子，不分男女與國籍，不管是來自中國大陸還是台灣，不管是拉丁美洲裔還是非洲裔，都忍不住叫著一位亞裔運動員的名字。因為林書豪的故事，是一個美國本土的故事，有美國社會最喜歡的小兵立大功的情節，以及有如仙履奇緣般的神話。而且他和大部份美國人一樣，總是把榮耀歸給上帝。但是聽在崇尚自由主義的紐約，卻一點也不刺耳。因為在美國，運動是大部份人生活的一大重心。當你可以把球打成這樣，你在球迷心中的地位，已經和神相去不遠了。

Can Lin add to his legend? There's reason to believe the answer is yes

2012-02-12T01:38:00.002+08:00

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/phil_taylor/02/10/jeremy.lin/index.html#ixzz1m60lVAXK

Jeremy Lin starred at Palo Alto (Calif.) High, which he led to the 2006 state title.

Kyle Terada/US Presswire

I missed on Jeremy Lin, too. And like the front offices and coaching staffs of the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, I'm kicking myself for not realizing what was right under my nose. The truth is, I had a better look, or at least a longer look, at him than any NBA talent evaluator, and I still never dreamed that Lin, the New York Knicks' suddenly brilliant point guard, would go from garbage time to prime time faster than a crossover dribble.

Lin starred at Palo Alto (Calif.) High School, better known as Paly to the locals, which is just a few miles from where I live. Occasionally I would swing by the Vikings' charming old gym, with balcony seating above the court, to catch a game. The first time I noticed Lin was during his junior year, in 2005, and he was a baby-faced version of what he is now -- clever with the dribble, deceptively quick, frustrating to guard. I remember lots of opposing guards contorting their faces in a mixture of surprise and disgust after he flashed past them to the hoop, as if they couldn't decide if they were more shocked or angry that this skinny Asian kid had used them like an orange traffic cone. You know the look -- it's the same one that Deron Williams and John Wall had when Lin toasted them during the Knicks' three-game winning streak over the last week.

I followed Lin after high school the way you keep track of the neighborhood kid who goes off to the big city, checking in on him from time to time to see how he's doing. Even though he had led Paly to a state championship as a senior, upsetting powerful Mater Dei of Orange County in the title game, I wasn't surprised when I heard that major Division I schools had little interest. As my Sports Illustrated colleague Pablo Torre wrote in his 2010 story about Harvard basketball, Lin wasn't just ignored by most schools; in some cases, he was unintentionally insulted: "Out of the Pac-10, Lin recalls, UCLA 'wasn't interested,' Stanford was 'fake interested,' and during a visit to Cal a staffer 'called me 'Ron.' "

Even though Lin went on to star at Harvard, even though he impressed me every time I watched him in high school and college, even though he had a memorable summer league duel against Wall, more than holding his own as an undrafted rookie against the No. 1 pick of the draft, I wasn't at all surprised when no one thought he had much of a chance to succeed in the NBA. I knew on some level that part of the reason Lin was so quickly dismissed was that NBA people had a hard time believing that an Asian-American could play point guard in the NBA, which is why I'm kicking myself -- I didn't question the conventional wisdom even though it didn't go along with what I saw with my own eyes.

It's also why Lin has become such a phenomenon, trending on Twitter, being searched for on Google, becoming the name that launched a thousand puns (Linsanity. Linning Streak. Jeremy is BallLin'.) So many people are rooting for him because he's a reminder not to just accept "expert" opinions, that evaluating players is an art, not a science, that just because there's never been a Taiwanese-American point guard in the NBA doesn't mean we should close ourselves off to the possibility of one.

Linsanity has gripped the nation just as fans are getting over a bout of Tebowmania, as Lin, a devout Christian who says his favorite book is the Bible, is considered by some to be the NBA's version of Tim Tebow. But that comparison does Lin a disservice. If the Knicks won despite Lin dribbling the ball off his foot every third time down the court, or throwing the occasional alley-oop over the backboard, he would be Tebow-like. Tebow succeeded as the Denver Broncos' quarterback despite not playing the position very well, while Lin has thrived because he has played his position beautifully.

At least he has, so far. As any number of buzz kills have been pointing out ever since Lin's emergence, there is the possibility that this joy ride could crash into a wall at any moment, maybe as soon as Friday night when the Los Angeles Lakers visit Madison Square Garden. Lin hasn't faced a defender with the guile and veteran tricks of Derek Fisher, and although Kobe Bryant seemed to barely know who Lin was on Thursday night, he will by tip-off on Friday. It's not hard to envision him deciding to try to lock down Lin and personally burst his bubble.

But until someone does that, the legend of Lin (is there anyone who doesn't know that he slept on his brother's and teammate Landry Fields' couches because he didn't have a place of his own? That he was cut by the Warriors and Rockets to clear cap space?) will grow, especially among Knicks fans desperate for the franchise's luck to change. Not much has gone right for the Knicks in more than a decade, and over the last few seasons they have been like a Rubik's Cube -- every move they make to solve one problem seems to create a new one. They acquired the star they wanted in Carmelo Anthony, but had to trade away half the roster to get him. They acquired the interior defender they needed in Tyson Chandler, but had to create a hole at point guard by using the amnesty provision on Chauncey Billups to clear salary cap room for him.

But now Lin has filled that void at the point, and it's hard to blame Knicks fans if, like coach Mike D'Antoni, they want to ride these good times "like frickin' Secretariat." They have good reason to be optimistic, because the attributes that have made Lin effective to this point -- intelligence, court vision, the ability to change speeds and take the proper angles on his dribble -- aren't qualities that will suddenly disappear.

The threats to Lin's success may come more from within than from opponents. The Knicks' surge has been accomplished mostly without their two star scorers, Anthony, who strained a groin muscle on Monday, and Amar'e Stoudemire, who has missed the last two games and is expected to miss two more after the death of his brother Hazell in an auto accident. It remains to be seen whether Anthony, in particular, is willing and able to adapt to the offensive emphasis on spacing the floor and moving the ball that plays so much to Lin's strengths.

If Anthony does bog down the offense with his slow-developing one-on-one moves, he will feel the wrath of the Knicks' faithful, who have finally glimpsed the possibilities of D'Antoni's offensive system. For New Yorkers of a certain age, the free-flowing, share-the-ball attack is like a 21st-century version of the sainted Knicks teams of the '70s with Walt Frazier and Willis Reed, whose mantra was to "find the open man." When Lin is running the show and his teammates are cutting and screening and spotting up, you get the feeling that somewhere the late coach Red Holzman is smiling.

As is everyone else in the Garden, for the first time in what feels like forever. You might think that the smiles are only temporary, that the odds are that Lin won't last. But if you're still thinking about the odds when it comes to Jeremy Lin, then you just don't get it.

Linsanity continues as Lin proves he's no fluke in win over Lakers Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/chris_mannix/02/11/jeremy.lin/index.html#ixzz1m5wivIaR

2012-02-12T01:22:00.001+08:00

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/chris_mannix/02/11/jeremy.lin/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a1

NEW YORK -- The ball kicked back out towards halfcourt and suddenly, the fate of the game rested on Jeremy Lin's slender, 6-foot-3, 200-pound frame. Six minutes on the clock, up eight, national television and Kobe Bryant starting to get warmed up, Lin stared down Pau Gasol, the four-time All-Star and the two-time NBA champion. Lin's eyes darted from left to right, his mind processing everything in front of him. Where is the mismatch? Where should I go? You know, point guard stuff. He dribbled once, twice, three times. Gasol stepped back, Lin pulled up, floating a toe on the line, 23-foot jumper.

Swish.

Dagger.

For all of their star power, for all of their wealth, the man who may save the Knicks' season earns the NBA minimum, sleeps on his brother's couch and less than a month ago wore a uniform with "Erie" across the chest. Jeremy Lin pumped in 38 points in New York's 92-85 win over the Lakers on Friday night, the fourth straight game he has tallied 23 or more. A Madison Square Garden crowd that has stood behind Willis Reed, Clyde Frazier and Patrick Ewing has united behind Lin, a four-time D-Leaguer and a two-time waiver casualty who has breathed new life into a doomed season.

"You don't see many guys play like this...in their whole career," said Mike D'Antoni. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I've never seen it."

D'Antoni likens Lin to Steve Nash, a comparison that is both awkward, yet appropriate. Lin is not Nash, doesn't have his awareness, doesn't have his unique skills. But there is something very Nash-like about Lin, the way he probes the paint, never surrendering his dribble, never taking his eyes off his teammates. Lin added seven assists to his scoring explosion, expertly operating out of the pick-and-roll and confounding the Lakers defense with his dribble penetration.

"He just has this pace and confidence," said Tyson Chandler. "He just keeps coming. You have to love a kid like that."

No one loves Lin more than D'Antoni, the embattled coach who is finally on steady ground. Smart, steady point guard play is central to D'Antoni's system, one that thrived in four full seasons with Nash at the helm. But with Raymond Felton traded and Chauncey Billups amnestied, D'Antoni has battled through this season with playmakers who were either incapable (Toney Douglas), unready (Iman Shumpert) or unable (Mike Bibby) to handle the job. Lin doesn't dabble in the spectacular, doesn't make many eye-popping plays. He merely plays the position like someone born to do it.

"Coach D'Antoni is an offensive genius," said Lin. "He puts new plays in every single game. Every game at the walk through, he will do something different. He makes us look good."

The hype around Lin will continue to grow, if that's even possible. Lin fever has gripped Manhattan. Asian media has descended on the Garden in numbers so high the Knicks PR staff has lost count. Lin's name is on signs everywhere. LIN-DIESEL. SUPER LIN-TENDO. SHOTS ARE FAL-LIN'. Lin picked up 60,000 followers on Twitter in the last week and on Sina (the Chinese version) he has added 60,000 more. A local Modell's reportedly sold out of 62 Lin jerseys in two hours on Friday and stores across the city have stacked up orders for hundreds more. To peruse the Knicks website you must pass through a page featuring an image of Lin, with an offer to download an app for the latest Lin-sanity video.

Lin won't be able to continue this blistering pace, not with Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony due back in the lineup next week. But he won't fall out of the lineup, either. "Players don't usually come out of nowhere," said Kobe Bryant. "If you go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there but no one ever noticed."

Lin will have some difficulties the second time through the league, as teams collect more film on him and dissect the weaknesses in his game. He will have the tall task of distributing the ball to a pair of stars who only know how to play with it and will have to keep his chin up when one of them expresses frustration at not getting it. Part of the job, you know. Part of being a point guard.

From Ivy Halls to the Garden, Surprise Star Jolts the N.B.A.

2012-02-09T19:53:00.003+08:00

February 7, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/sports/basketball/jeremy-lin-has-burst-from-nba-novelty-act-to-knicks-star.html?_r=1&ref=basketball

Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Jeremy Lin was the Knicks' No. 4 point guard when he signed in December, but now he is starting and carrying fans' hopes.

By HOWARD BECK

New York’s newest basketball sensation spends most nights on a couch in a one-bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side. The housing choice is understandable once you get to know Jeremy Lin.

He is a Harvard graduate playing in the National Basketball Association. He is an Asian-American in a league devoid of them, which makes him doubly anomalous. No team drafted Lin in 2010. Two teams cut him in December, before the Knicks picked him up.

His contract, potentially worth nearly $800,000, was not even guaranteed until Tuesday afternoon. So for the past six weeks, Lin, 23, has been sleeping in his brother Josh’s living room, waiting for clarity and career security.

“He has his own couch,” Josh Lin, a New York University dental student, said cheerfully.

He should be able to reclaim his living room soon enough.

Jeremy Lin’s utterly distinctive, mostly transient N.B.A. existence has taken a rather sudden turn over the past few days.

On Saturday night, Lin came off the bench and powered the Knicks to a 99-92 victory over the Nets at Madison Square Garden, scoring a career-best 25 points with 7 assists. Two nights later, he made his first N.B.A. start and produced 28 points and 8 assists in a 99-88 win over the Utah Jazz.

Knicks fans now serenade Lin with chants of “Je-re-my!” and “M.V.P.!” while the franchise uses his likeness to sell tickets and teammates and coaches gush with praise.

With every game, every precision pass and every clever drive to the basket, Lin is raising expectations, altering the Knicks’ fate and redefining the word “unlikely.” On Twitter, fans and basketball pundits are using another term to describe the phenomenon: “Linsanity.”

Two weeks ago, the 6-foot-3 Lin was not even part of the Knicks’ point-guard rotation, despite their lack of talent at the position. He played sparingly in a few games, showing just enough promise to keep getting another look— a few more minutes, another quarter. But there was never any hint of what was to come.

With 25 points Saturday, Lin set the N.B.A. scoring record for a player from Harvard. For an encore, he became the first player in more than 30 years to record at least 28 points and 8 assists in his first N.B.A. start. The last to do so was Isiah Thomas, the Detroit Pistons’ Hall of Fame point guard, in October 1981.

“I don’t think anyone, including myself, saw this coming,” Lin said after the game Monday.

That is, essentially, the story of Lin’s career. He was cut in December by the Golden State Warriors, his hometown team, after one season in which he rarely left the bench. The Warriors were intrigued enough to sign him but not enough to keep him. The Houston Rockets gave Lin a quick look and cut him.

When the Knicks claimed Lin off waivers Dec. 27, he was fourth on the depth chart at point guard. Now he is No. 1, continuing a long pattern of low expectations and surprising results.

Lin received no college scholarship offers, despite leading his Palo Alto High School team to a 32-1 record and the California championship. At Harvard, he was twice named to the all-Ivy League first team and delivered a signature 30-point performance against 12th-ranked Connecticut.

At draft time, in June 2010, Lin was again overlooked. N.B.A. teams had their doubts — about his defense, about his jump shot, about his ability to keep up with the league’s elite athletes.

They were the kind of concerns scouts have every year about dozens of prospects, from all sorts of programs and all sorts of backgrounds. Yet there was no escaping Lin’s unusual pedigree and the subtle sense that he did not fit a profile.

Lin is the N.B.A.’s first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent and only the fourth Asian-American in league history. His parents, Shirley and Gie-Ming, who are engineers, emigrated from Taiwan to the United States in the 1970s.

“I think people are surprised, because people don’t know him, or maybe he’s a pioneer,” Shirley Lin said. “There’s not that many Harvard players, not that many Asian-Americans. He’s just kind of like underdog. But he works hard.”

The qualities that make Lin unique, and seemingly held him back, are now the qualities that make him a sensation. Knicks fans were clamoring for Lin before he threw his first pass at the Garden. They roar louder for his shifty layups in traffic than they do for Carmelo Anthony’s.

Lin is the proud underdog defying scouts, stunning opposing defenders and forcing reassessments with every daring burst into the lane. He is more than a novelty now, but also more than just an underrated player finding success.

Social networks lighted up Saturday night and again Monday with excited chatter about Lin, much of it from Asian-American fans who have been following him for years.

“It’s just a real point of pride, the success he is having,” said Carl Park, a 35-year-old graduate student in Chicago and a first-generation Korean-American.

Park grew up a Milwaukee Bucks fan, but he roots for Lin wherever he plays.

“It represents a step for the Asian-American community as it becomes part of American culture more broadly,” Park said.

To illustrate his point, Park posted a humorous “Timeline for what Asian-Americans get called in pickup basketball” on his Facebook page. In 1980, it was “Bruce” (as in Lee). In 1995, “Jackie Chan.” In 2000, “Yao,” for Yao Ming.

In 2012, “Jeremy.”

The first examples came from Park’s own experience as a recreational player. The last, he hopes to hear.

“It’s nice there’s been some progress that way,” Park said, “in that younger guys might actually get called the name of an actual basketball player.”

Yet the Lin phenomenon transcends race or nationality. He resonates with devout Christians, because he speaks openly of his faith, a sort of Taiwanese Tim Tebow. He taps into the passions of Harvard alumni, Ivy Leaguers, New Yorkers and anyone anywhere who loves an underdog.

“Jeremy Lin” was a top trending topic on Twitter on Sunday, in New York and in San Francisco. On Monday, he picked up nearly 10,000 followers on his account, @JLin7. On Tuesday, a Lin-themed rap appeared on YouTube.

No demographic seems to love him as much as Knicks fans, who are suddenly counting on Lin to revive their flagging season. The stars, Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, have struggled. The presumed starting point guard, Baron Davis, is recovering from a back injury. The Knicks have lost 15 of their first 25 games, dousing their championship hopes.

Another setback came Tuesday, when the Knicks announced that Anthony would miss up to two weeks because of a groin injury.

On Twitter, the fan response came swiftly: “As long as we have Jeremy Lin, we’ll be fine,” wrote @CareyWilbur.

It is perhaps too much to ask the undrafted player from Harvard to save the season. It seems more likely that Lin, who has a degree in economics, will ultimately settle into a more modest nightly role.

But the uncertainty is over. Lin has cemented himself as a credible N.B.A. player, not a novelty act. On Tuesday, his contract became guaranteed for the season. The Knicks are keeping him. It seems safe to go apartment hunting.

“I think he’s looking forward to it,” Josh Lin said.

Michael Luo contributed reporting.

Lin Leads Again as Knicks Win 3rd in Row

2012-02-09T16:03:00.000+08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/sports/basketball/jeremy-lin-leads-knicks-again-107-93-over-wizards.html

February 8, 2012

By HOWARD BECK

WASHINGTON — The two-game anomaly is now a three-game trend. The fluke no longer looks so flukey. The aberration is not fading away. Jeremy Lin is not regressing to the mean, wherever that mean is supposed to be.

Lin kept rising Wednesday night, and the Knicks along with him, for a 107-93 rout of the Washington Wizards, extending a most improbable and fabulously entertaining run that shows no signs of ebbing.

Lin kept scoring (23 points), kept passing (a career-high 10 assists), threw down his first N.B.A. dunk, recorded his first double-double and crossed the 20-point mark for the third straight game. The plaudits and the roars kept coming, even on the road.

The Knicks have won three straight games — their best streak since early January — the last two with Lin as the starting point guard, and all since Lin joined the rotation. It is getting harder and harder to dismiss the phenomenon.

“I think it’s real,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Because the thing that’s for real is his vision, which won’t change, his speed, which won’t change, his knowledge of the game, which won’t change. I think it can only get better.”

Beating the Wizards (5-21) is not the greatest of accomplishments, but the Knicks are not exactly a powerhouse themselves, given their record (11-15) and the absence of their two stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire.

But they have Lin, whose rapid rise from obscure bench player to Broadway star continues to gather steam. As the game wound down Wednesday, chants of “Jeremy Lin” echoed through the Verizon Center.

Lin, who was undrafted in 2010, played John Wall — the No. 1 pick that year — to a virtual draw, as Wall finished with 29 points and 6 assists. The last time the two faced each other was in July 2010, when Lin impressed scouts by outplaying Wall in the fourth quarter of a summer-league game.

“I knew he could play basketball,” Wall said, “and if you are a guard that can run the pick-and-roll in their coach’s offense, you have a very good chance to excel.”

The Knicks will be without Stoudemire and Anthony again for the next two games, against the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Stoudemire is grieving the loss of his older brother, Hazell, who was killed in a car accident. He is expected to return to the team on Monday. Anthony, who has a strained groin, will be out for at least another week.

So the Knicks will continue to ride Lin’s hot hand, his zippy passing and the surprising production of a low-budget surrounding cast.

Steve Novak, who had barely made a ripple in his short Knicks career, had 19 points for the second straight game. Iman Shumpert added 17 points, and Landry Fields 16. Tyson Chandler, the Knicks’ last remaining marquee player, had 25 points and 11 rebounds and was the beneficiary of many of Lin’s passes out of the pick-and-roll.

The Knicks are a joyful bunch again, Jared Jeffries said, and it begins with Lin.

“You can see it in all our faces,” Jeffries said. “The energy in this room, the camaraderie right now that we have, that he’s kind of unified this team.”

Lin was having a quietly effective night before unleashing a little flash. Late in the third quarter, Lin beat his man, slipped into the lane and rose for a driving right-handed dunk, bringing the Knicks’ bench to its feet and eliciting a huge roar from the crowd, which was filled with Knicks fans.

“I didn’t know he could dunk,” Chandler said with a smile. “When he’s going in for it, I go: ‘No, Jeremy! Just lay the ball up.’ And all of a sudden he dunks it.”

Lin said his last dunk probably came in the D-League last year. He celebrated this one with a smile and a whoop.

“I just try to play with as much energy and emotion as I can,” he said.

Lin had 8 points and 8 assists in the first half, leading the Knicks from an 8-point deficit to a 10-point lead, despite foul trouble and a lacerated chin. His second foul and the blood came simultaneously, when Wall plowed through him in the backcourt. Lin spent several minutes getting bandaged while the Knicks fell behind.

Lin returned early in the second quarter, hit Novak for four 3-pointers and converted a pair of layups as the Knicks seized control.

The Lin phenomenon is quickly spreading. A group of five Asian-American men in the lower bowl wore blue shirts with orange lettering, spelling out “LIN 17.” Fans sitting near the visitors’ tunnel leaned over to snap photos of Lin as he passed by. Others held homemade signs (“Lin for the win”). The Wizards issued an extra 15 media credentials, all for Chinese and Taiwanese reporters who came to see Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan.

“After the last game, I wouldn’t have imagined this,” Lin said of his breakout week. “But thankful. Very thankful.”

REBOUNDS

Landry Fields was selected to play in the N.B.A.’s “rising stars” game, featuring a mix of rookies and second-year players, at All-Star weekend. Iman Shumpert, however, was not, which upset Mike D’Antoni. “I was shocked that he didn’t make it,” D’Antoni said. Shumpert is sixth among rookies in scoring and among the leaders in steals and assists, but he could not crack the group of guards selected: Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, MarShon Brooks, Brandon Knight and Kemba Walker. “I don’t really mind it,” Shumpert said. “It would have been fun. It would have been a nice accomplishment and everything, but I’m more worried about turning this season around.” ... Baron Davis, who has not practiced in two weeks, is expected to work out on the court individually on Thursday.

Given A Chance, Lin Becomes New York’s Newest Star

2012-02-09T12:14:00.003+08:00

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/given-a-chance-lin-becomes-new-yorks-newest-star/

February 8, 2012 10:31 AM

Jeremy Lin #17 of the New York Knicks (Photo by Steven Freeman/NBAE via Getty Images)

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Linsanity has taken over Madison Square Garden, and even Magic Johnson was captivated watching New York’s newest star.

The only guy who doesn’t seem impressed is Jeremy Lin.

The Knicks’ new point guard refuses to get his own place to live, just in case the team decides to cut him this week before his contract becomes guaranteed.

He takes no satisfaction in proving he wasn’t a one-hit wonder, because he could be “like a two-time wonder.”

And no, he doesn’t consider himself all that smart, regardless of that Harvard education.

“That’s a stereotype,” Lin said Tuesday. “(Former Golden State teammate) David Lee would be the first to tell you, he always calls me the dumbest smart guy he knows. Depends on who you ask I guess.”

Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni knew Lin was intelligent — he had a 4.2 grade-point average in high school. What he didn’t know was whether Lin could play in the NBA, and for a while he was hesitant to find out.

The Knicks struggled out of the gate, and even though D’Antoni had seen glimpses from Lin, he worried this wasn’t the time to turn to a guy who just recently was sent to the NBA Development League.

“I was afraid to do anything, we’re already in a little bit of a crisis and I just can’t be, you know, pulling straws, just trying something, a whim. Other players would be looking at me like ‘You crazy?’ if it didn’t work,” D’Antoni said. “Now he just kept showing stuff a little bit, a little bit. When he got one opportunity, he took advantage of it.”

Lin scored 25 points Saturday — after crashing at teammate Landry Fields’ place because his brother, with whom he normally stays, had company. He then scored a career-best 28 Monday in his first NBA start, a victory over Utah as “Linsanity” was trending on Twitter in New York.

“The excitement he has caused in the Garden, man, I hadn’t seen that in a long time. The way he can penetrate, and can get in that lane, and either shoot it or dish it, has really made them a better basketball team,” said Johnson, the Lakers Hall of Famer who watched both games.

“When they started chanting last night ‘MVP!’ I fell out. It was really wonderful for the young man. When you get a spark a like this, especially in a season like this, this could carry them for a long time because they needed something to happen positive. Everything has been really negative.”

D’Antoni had already gone through three point guards this season while waiting for Baron Davis to become available. Despite having All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, the Knicks struggled to score because they couldn’t find anyone to properly run D’Antoni’s pick-and-roll offense.

The coach said it isn’t that difficult, but it takes some intelligence, something the economics major has plenty of along with some overlooked physical gifts.

“First of all, he has really good speed. He gets into the lane, he gets by people,” D’Antoni said. “But he has pace in the sense of setting the guy up, sensing where the openings are, and it’s hard to teach. Some guys have it. You can teach certain aspects of it and get him better, but they have to be able to read and stuff, and he can do that.”

Lin wasn’t selected in the 2010 draft and was eventually signed by Golden State, not far from where he starred for Palo Alto High School. He split last season between the Warriors and the D-League, then was waived the day camps opened this season. Houston claimed him but cut him two weeks later, and the Knicks claimed him, with D’Antoni recalling being impressed after seeing Lin work out a year earlier.

It seems unlikely he’ll be hitting the market again anytime soon, but Lin won’t risk it. Contracts become guaranteed for the rest of the season if a player is still on the roster Friday, so he’ll wait for that before checking out the local real estate market. Even though he outplayed an All-Star in the Nets’ Deron Williams on Saturday, he knows he can be the one looking bad Wednesday at Washington against John Wall’s speed.

“The minute as athletes you get complacent, that’s when trouble comes,” Lin said. “So I’m just trying to stay ready.”

The first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, Lin is a natural draw in New York, where Stoudemire said fans love the underdog. But it’s not the box office appeal that matters to his teammates, who saw a promising season slipping away because they had nobody to get them the ball.

Lin’s done that, and the Knicks might need another big effort Wednesday, with both Anthony and Stoudemire expected to miss the game. But Lin guided the Knicks past Utah without them Monday, a surprising victory over a winning team.

Not as surprising as the undrafted Ivy Leaguer becoming the most important player on an NBA team.

“You never know who can step up. It only takes one guy to step up and all of a sudden everything turns and I think that’s the way we’re feeling around here now,” center Tyson Chandler said. “Jeremy stepped up and put guys back in their natural positions and all of a sudden our offense is flowing.”

The Jeremy Lin Show, Act II

2012-02-07T18:54:00.002+08:00

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/10962/the-jeremy-lin-show-act-ii

By Ian Begley
The Knicks won back-to-back games for the first time since early January.

But don't call it a winning streak -- it's a 'Lin-ning Streak.'

Because, as improbable as it sounds, Jeremy Lin's fingerprints were all over both victories.

That's the same Jeremy Lin who was cut by two teams in the preseason.

It's the same Jeremy Lin who played a grand total of 16 minutes in his first two weeks with the Knicks.

And it's the same Jeremy Lin who spent six days in the D-League two weeks ago.

"I definitely couldn't have imagined this," Lin said after scoring a career-high 28 points and handing out eight assists in his first NBA start, a 99-88 win over the Jazz.

The Harvard-educated Lin led the Knicks to win on a night when they were without Amare Stoudemire (death in the family) andCarmelo Anthony, who left with 6:31 to play in the first with a strained right groin.

"We've been saying that he has talent in practice, but we didn't know if it would translate in the game," said Tyson Chandler. "He's obviously showing all of us that he can."

Obviously.

With Lin running the show, the undermanned Knicks (10-15) never seemed overwhelmed.

They held a lead for the final 45 minutes of the game pulled away in the fourth on the strength of several big shots from their point guard.

"Jeremy kind of settles everything and we can build on that," D'Antoni said. "He gives us a semblance of a team that can move the ball and get shots."

That's an aspect that was missing from D'Antoni's offense for most of the season. Before Lin's breakout night on Saturday, the Knicks were 24th in offensive efficiency, 24th in field goal percentage and 25th in assist percentage.

On Tuesday, those numbers seemed like misprints.

Lin continually created open shots, ran the pick and roll smoothly and helped maintain spacing on the floor.

In short, he was everything that D'Antoni had been searching for in a lead guard.

"It’s fun," the coach said. "You can actually draw a play up and (think) 'this might work.' "

It worked for the Knicks on Monday in part because of major contributions from Bill Walker (11 points, five rebounds) and the seldom-used Steve Novak (19 points, 5-for-8 from beyond the arc).

"It's really not just me," said Lin, just the second Asian-American player in league history. "I hope everyone sees that."

One negative for Lin? He had eight turnovers to go with his eight assists. But that was partially due to fatigue. After playing 36 minutes on Saturday, he was on the floor for 45 on Tuesday.

D'Antoni thought about taking him out late in the third quarter. Lin convinced him to reconsider. The coach obliged, saying later that he was going to ride Lin "like friggin' Secretariat."

D'Antoni's 'Secretariat' brought the Knicks home in the back stretch. Lin had 13 points in the fourth quarter -- many on an array of acrobatic layups. (Something he perfected playing on an 8-foot hoop with his brothers in Torrance, Calif.)

Lin's night hit a crescendo with just under two minutes to play. He gathered a deflection from Chandler and knocked down a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock to give the Knicks a nine-point cushion and essentially seal the game.

Lin backpedaled across half court with his tongue half out, wearing a child-like smile as the Garden crowd chanted "MVP, MVP!"

"It was just special," Lin said.

Not bad for a guy who was with the Erie Bayhawks two weeks ago.

Knicks’ Lin Fires Up Garden With 28 Points in First Start

2012-02-07T18:08:00.004+08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/sports/basketball/jeremy-lin-scores-28-as-knicks-beat-utah-jazz.html

February 6, 2012

By HOWARD BECK

Before Jeremy Lin could script his own encore, before he could throw a single pass or wiggle into the lane, the Knicks’ overactive marketing arm had already recast the day in his image. His face beamed from the team’s home page and in a promotional e-mail sent to fans, with a single-word pitch: “Linsanity.”

Even the Knicks underestimated just how Linsane the night would become.

Lin made the first start of his surprising N.B.A. career Monday just as the Knicks lost Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, turning the roster upside down and setting the scene for another strange and wondrous evening at Madison Square Garden.

Lin was thrilling, occasionally erratic and ultimately exhausted, but he again electrified the crowd and propelled the Knicks to a stunning 99-88 victory over the Utah Jazz. His night ended with career highs in points (28) and assists (8), and booming chants of “M.V.P.!”

“God works in mysterious and miraculous ways,” Lin said after, the smile never leaving his face.

As unlikely as Lin’s breakout performance was Saturday — when he came off the bench for 25 points and 7 assists — this was doubly so. The Knicks (10-15) began the night without Stoudemire, who left to be with his family after the death of his older brother. They lost Anthony to a groin injury in the first quarter. Tyson Chandler spent most of the night on the bench in foul trouble.

Anthony will be re-evaluated on Tuesday, but it seems likely that he and Stoudemire will both miss the Knicks’ next game, in Washington on Wednesday night.

There was little left of the Knicks’ starry lineup. Yet the arena was filled with joyful pandemonium, all inspired by Lin, the undrafted point guard from Harvard, and the city’s new sports hero.

With Lin running the point, the ball moved and the offense hummed, transforming the Knicks’ shoddy bench into a productive unit. The Knicks’ leaders, after Lin, were the seldom-used Steve Novak with 19 points, the much-maligned Jared Jeffries with 13 points and 8 rebounds, and Bill Walker with 11 points. Chandler, the last Knicks star standing, had 10 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes.

“What Jeremy is doing is incredible,” Chandler said, “because he’s moving everybody to their natural positions. Nobody’s having to do anything that they’re not accustomed to doing.”

The only blemish was in the turnover column, where Lin had eight, all in the second half — forgivable under the circumstances because he played all but 3 minutes 8 seconds of the game.

“I’m riding him like freaking Secretariat,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said, laughing. “I was going to take him out, and he looked at me and said, ‘I don’t want to come out.’ ”

That moment came with about 15 minutes left. Lin said he knew he could push through, and he thanked D’Antoni for the show of faith.

“He left me in, through all the mistakes,” Lin said. “And I think that’s huge, when you’re a player and you have eight turnovers in a game and he lets you play through it. That’s unbelievable.”

The only players to get a louder ovation than Lin were the six members of the Super Bowl champion Giants who were introduced during a second-quarter timeout.

It was the Knicks’ second straight victory orchestrated by Lin, after Saturday’s win against the Nets, and their first against a winning team since Jan. 11. Utah, which got 22 points from Al Jefferson, fell to 13-10.

The Knicks led by as many as 15 points in the first half and never trailed in the second half.

When the Jazz cut their deficit to 2 points at the end of the third quarter, Lin held them off, with a 3-point play to open the fourth.

Then, midway through the fourth, came the highlight of the night. Driving through the lane, Lin shifted to his left for a layup, then switched to his right hand at the last second for a reverse, drawing a foul for another 3-point play and a 10-point lead.

Minutes later, Lin caught a tap-out from Chandler and fired a 3-pointer that just beat the shot clock for a 95-86 lead. Lin broke into a wide smile as he backpedaled up the court, then stuck out his Gatorade-stained tongue and winked.

He finished 10 for 17 from the field and 7 of 9 from the foul line.

“Jeremy kind of settles everything, puts everything in perspective, and we can build on that,” D’Antoni said. “We hope. I don’t want to get too far ahead, but I am excited.”

REBOUNDS

Baron Davis has had a small setback in his recovery from a back injury, but not because of any specific problems with his back. Davis said Monday that he recently had an infection in his right elbow, which triggered a reaction in other areas, including his back. The problem arose on Jan. 26, forcing Davis to halt his rehabilitation program temporarily. “I was getting a lot of unnecessary pain, pain that I wasn’t used to having,” Davis said. He has resumed individual workouts, but he is unlikely to practice again until at least next week. He referred to the infection as a “minor setback” and said that he had no pain in his back. He acknowledged that the pause in his workouts might have been a good thing. “It was almost like my body telling me: ‘Chill out. Don’t rush it,’ ” he said.

香港不高興

2012-01-18T14:08:00.001+08:00

香港不高興 from MagicHour Studio on Vimeo.

台灣人這麼說這麼做-肖鋒╱廣州．《新週刊》總主筆

2012-01-18T12:33:00.003+08:00

廣州《新週刊》總主筆~肖鋒:大陸人看台灣 台灣人這麼說這麼做-肖鋒╱廣州．《新週刊》總主筆
在台灣找中國，你能感悟到一種久違了的溫馨。我們與他們，似曾相識又彼此陌生。不少陸客初看台灣會有些心理落差。台灣怎麼連個氣派的機場都沒有？台灣不是用看的，台灣是要細細品味的。就像一個女人..
我們過往所瞭解的中國，只是一半，另一半在台灣，這一半雖小卻濃縮了中華民族的文化精粹。
他們跟我們一樣，他們跟我們又不一樣，太不一樣了. 他們的「愛」是有心的，他們的「親」是相見的，他們的「義」中是有我
的，他們的「廟」是經常朝拜的。
中國漢字是我們與古人交流的密碼。密碼不失，方能傳承.
他們的書店是有主張的，堅守在黃金地理位置。逛書店是一種享受，讀書是一種態度。一個不讀書的民族只會淪為低智商社會.
他們以忠孝仁義命名道路。台灣的路名很中國，香港的路名很殖民，大陸路名很革命。路不只通東西南北，也通古今。東西主幹叫忠孝路，南北縱橫叫復興路（台北）；還有仁一路、信二路、義三路、愛四路（基隆）；或者一心路、二聖路、三多路、四維路、五福路、六合路、七賢路、八德路、九如路、十全路（高雄）.
他們的機場翻修，會一步一個道歉啟事。謙恭本是中華民族的美德。公權更應如此。
人臉是城市最細緻的風景線。台灣人的臉從容淡定，優雅內斂他們會熱心為陌生人指路，新一代甚至會拿出手機，耐心為你google，將地圖解釋給你看。中華民族以助人為樂，美德有傳。
他們一般不拒絕你借電話；迷路了員警不拒絕開車送你；你不買東西不會嫌棄你，會說「謝謝，歡迎下次再來」；臨行前被告知，大陸砍價殺一半的作法在台行不通，且會招致鄙視。通常，他們不認同討價還價，減半還價更是拒絕，買賣誠心、童叟無欺本是中國人的從商傳統
他們仍把「小姐」當禮貌的稱呼，而「老師」是極令人尊敬的稱謂。他們宣導獻愛心、捐發票。  發票定期搖獎，既監督商家納稅，同時又救助老弱. 他們的旅館裡會擺放佛教聖典、聖經、大師語錄，各種信仰和諧共處。什麼是和諧社會？這就是和諧社會.
他們的小吃攤有幾十年歷史，並不因城管掃蕩一空。小吃攤是城市一道誘人的風景線。友善是台灣人的關鍵字。
友善不是靠標語，也裝不出來，不是面子，而是裡子他們仍保持里長、鄰長的設置，居民一有矛盾或問題，先靠傳統的辦法協調。中國式友善是鄉土社會出發，再擴展到陌生人社會的。
中華民族的裡子是鄉土中國. 台灣最值得你推薦的是什麼？導遊說是人情和文化。真準，此兩物大陸最缺。文化與人情沒寫在樓面上，卻寫在人臉上...。
『為什麼在跟臺灣人交流時，總覺得他們不認為自己是中國人呢?』『為什麼說臺灣人也是中國人時，他們會生氣?』『為什麼臺灣人這麼不喜歡中國啊?』
相信這是每位與臺灣交流過的大陸人民對『大部分』臺灣人的印象，並且深深感到怎麼臺灣人不覺得自己是中國人呢? 跟課本裡說的『我們與臺灣同胞血脈相連』大相逕庭。
這之間的認知差異，為什麼」現在」大多數的臺灣人不認同『中國』，即便原本二十年前大多數臺灣人還是自認為是中國人，這之間變化的原因，本文將試著以多方角度解釋為何臺灣人自我認同的發生劇烈變化。但我們要先認清楚一個相當重要但不好理解的概念，就是這種認同上的轉變不能與台獨劃上等號，這不是等價的。
  前言：臺灣人原本的認同 (以下有點長, 但寫的很細)
每個在國民黨威權時代(1945~1980末期)的臺灣唸過小學的同學，都對小學用的制式作業本非常有印象，畢竟陪伴了每位小朋友六年的時光。
但以現代審美觀點來看，當時的作業簿可以說用『俗氣』兩個字來形容。
不過小孩子總是傻裡傻氣的，對這難看的作業本也分不出美醜。
而這作業簿令人印象最深的，是在作業本的封底上，印有兩行字：『當個活活潑潑的好學生，做個堂堂正正的中國人』
於是為了要滿足某些政治上的目的，因此黨國教育與宣傳系統對臺灣人民大舉宣傳，臺灣人是中國人的『政治術語』。
在那威權的時代，統治者說一就一，說二就二，沒有人質疑為什麼"我"是" 中國人"？反而大家認為堂堂正正的人就是中國人，所以我就要努力成為一個品德高尚的中國人。
同樣的，威權的教育系統告訴我們大陸的同胞都生活在水深火熱之中，我們必須反攻回去才能解救受苦受難的大陸同胞，但沒人質疑大陸人為什麼是同胞這件事情，反而會想到生活在臺灣這塊土地上的人就是中國人，對岸的大陸同胞也是中國人；我們在偉大的蔣總統領導下生活富足又安樂，大陸同胞則被萬惡的共匪荼毒。
基於"同胞愛"，我們必須去解救大陸同胞。
因此在過去，臺灣幾乎不存在認同問題，大部分的人都認為自己有中國人的身份，而且認識大陸的方式都是藉由政府的宣傳，而非親身體驗。又加上當時的冷戰背景，1970年代前國際上普遍承認中華民國代表中國，於是認同自己是中國人這個觀念是牢不可破的。
但這畢竟是威權時代，隨著1980年代末期臺灣的民主化運動蓬勃發展以及兩岸之間的互動，造成了臺灣人的自我認同發生了巨大的改變。


(圖)臺灣民眾臺灣人/中國人認同趨勢分佈取自於臺灣國立政治大學選舉研究中心資料庫。
臺灣陸委會委託臺灣國立政治大學選局研究中心調查臺灣人民自我認同研究，計畫已經持續了近20年，是臺灣針對同一議題不同時間的民意調查最具權威的一份資料，根據這張由調研結果繪製的圖表透漏了驚人的變化，從1992年起：『認為我只是中國人的臺灣人民，已經從1992年的25.5%下降到2011年4.1%，
剩下不到原來的五分之一。
認為我只是臺灣人的臺灣人民從1992年的27.6%，上升到2011年的54.2%，比率成長了三倍，認為自己僅是臺灣人的臺灣人民，已經超過臺灣人口比率的一半。而我是臺灣人也是中國人的比率也在逐漸減少中。』
有一派論點認為：1990年代後，臺灣由李登輝陳水扁執政，執行去中國化的教育政策。導致臺灣人認同發生改變。這論點非常不牢靠，因為臺灣人改變認同的比例變動相當大，遠遠超過當時受過教育的年輕人。也就是說有非常多受過正統『我是堂堂正正的中國人』教育的中老年人改變了他們的自我認同，理論上他們的思想是根深蒂固的，並非是一個簡單的去中國化政策就能改變。凡事出必有因，在此先提出一個觀察的角度切入問題：為什麼臺灣人不認同『中國』呢?
1.中國象徵意義的改變與昧於事實的政治觀念
由於1970年代，美國逐漸改變冷戰策略，改變策略聯合中華人民共和國一同圍堵蘇聯，導致原本較為孤立的中華人民共和國逐漸走向世界舞臺的中央，於是中華民國這個稱號逐漸得不到世界的認同。
因此在這大前提下『中國=中華人民共和國』這個等式逐漸得到大部分國家認同。
又加上中華人民共和國昧於事實宣傳中華民國已經不存在，世界上只有中華人民共和國代表中國，隱含著中華民國不准出現在國際舞臺上，這種不讓臺灣也是中國(中華民國)的態度，意味著也不讓台灣人稱做中華民國國民，所以對臺灣人來說就出現這樣的疑惑：『如果中國人=中華人民共和國的國民(意味著中國人≠中華民國國民)，那我不是中華人民共和國的人民，所以我是中國人嗎?』
在這邏輯下，臺灣人覺得大陸人搶了中國的名號。也讓臺灣人在被中華人民共和國的國民詢問：『你是中國人嗎?』時，自然認為大陸人指的中國人就是中華
人民共和國國民，自己又不是拿中華人民共和國護照，因此就會回答：『我不是中國人。』
也就是因為為了避免被混淆，生活在臺灣的中華民國為了與中華人民共和國做出區隔，於是採用臺灣當作他的招牌。
中華人民共和國這種昧於事實不承認中華民國存在的政治態度，直接否決臺灣人的存在感，硬把臺灣人歸屬於中華人民共和國下，對臺灣人民相當不尊重，造成臺灣人民對中國政府的反感，因此影響了臺灣人的認同。
  2.中國人不把臺灣人當中國人看
一連串不得臺灣民心的政策與事件。除了中國的象徵意義的改變與昧於事實的政治觀念外，這裡我們談到海峽兩岸重要的歷史事件，這些事件降低了臺灣人對『中國』的好感，影響了臺灣人的自我認同，以下我們按照時間次序排列。
《開放大陸觀光》
隨著臺灣人反抗蔣氏威權政府，1980年代末期臺灣的政治環境逐漸寬鬆。隨著1987年開放大陸探親，過去只能透過政府才能認識大陸，而現在能親眼見到。由於當時海峽兩岸歷經四十年的分治，已有非常大的差異。但因為只有少數臺灣人去大陸觀光因此觀光所造成的影響在那時候不大，但隨著兩岸交流越來越頻繁，台灣人對大陸的瞭解越深，對大陸越沒有認同感。
之後在1989春夏的那場騷動，共和國的決策讓臺灣人開始有了「自己跟中國人不一樣」的想法，這個想法雖小，但是所造成的結果卻相當巨大。
因為在約莫半年後，臺灣發生了一樣的事情，臺灣學生萬人聚集在中正紀念堂要求政府政治改革，只是不同於大陸，臺灣領導李登輝接受了學生的要求，之後大刀闊斧的實施民主化，從此專制威權不再，臺灣與中國便在90年代初期走向了一條完全相反的道路，而這條道路影響了臺灣的社會文化與生活方式，可
以說是紮紮實實地改變臺灣。
所以在臺灣人的眼中，臺灣已經順應了冷戰結束的潮流，可是大陸呢? 因此我們可以用以下觀點理解臺灣人的視角：
大陸人看朝鮮人的感覺，認為朝鮮還活在過去中國文革那年代，對他們物質貧乏饑荒不斷卻又精神生活飽足而感到不可思議與悲憫；同樣的臺灣人看大陸人，就覺得大陸人還活在過去臺灣專制威權的年代，物質富足但生活卻處處充滿不公與暴力，同樣感到感到不可思議與悲憫。
大陸人覺得朝鮮人跟自己不一樣；同樣的臺灣人也覺得自己跟大陸人不一樣。
《千島湖事件》
1994年認同自己是中國人的比率的首次低於認同自己是臺灣人的比率，那是因為那年發生了《千島湖事件》。
關於千島湖事件，我們先用類似的事情來模擬。
2011年7月浙江溫州兩輛動車在暴雨中追撞，官方說四十人死亡，事故原因眾說紛紜。官方的處理態度讓人無語，如出事後趕緊搶通道路甚至在車廂未確認是否還有受難者就將事故列車解體後就地掩埋，在出事後馬上對傷者提出賠償，令人很難不聯想到鐵道部想息事寧人。人民對官方報導的傷亡人數深感不信任。至於鐵道部發言人王勇平一句：
『至於你信不信，我反正信了』更讓人異常憤怒。
如果你是中國人，看到政府的處理態度你會認同他嗎?如果你對這件事情感到悲憤的話就能理解千島湖事件為什麼能對臺灣人的自我認同有這麼大的影響。千島湖事件簡單說就是一群臺灣旅客去浙江千島湖遊玩，結果不知道遇到什麼什麼事情，整船的人全部消失，找到的時候船已經被焚燒，遊客與船員全部死亡。
一開始的官方說法是發生火災，但死者家屬見到親人屍體時卻發現僅有上半身碳化，下半身卻無明顯燒傷，船上彈痕纍纍，死者行李全部消失，火災導致船難傷亡的說法遭到嚴重質疑。
但浙江省政府隨後的處置方式令人乍舌，不僅禁止臺灣媒體與受難者家屬上船拍照，還派大量人員將受難者家屬軟禁在旅社中控制行動，浙江省副省長在與受難者家屬開會時，受難者家屬要求帶屍體回臺灣，浙江省副省長竟然一副愛理不理，彷彿與受難者家屬談條件是污辱自己人格，於是脫口說出『沒辦法再和你們這些家屬談下去了』，後來浙江省政府發現火災事故不能平息臺灣的疑惑，於是宣佈抓到三位搶船的犯人速審宣判後便槍斃，浙江省雖提供官方說法，但沒人信，事情的真相也沒人知道。
對那時處在政治風氣急速變化的臺灣人民來說，共和國政府官員一副咄咄逼人，他就是真理的樣子，完全跟當時臺灣官員不是同一個層次。於是千島湖事件，成為臺灣邁入新聞自由後，全島人民頭一次親身見識到共和國政府一副你能拿他怎樣的態度，對比當時的臺灣環境，臺灣簡直是天堂。在千島湖事件後，如果你是臺灣人，你會認同代表中國的中華人民共和國政府嗎?
《飛彈危機》
如果美國因為中國人認為無關緊要的事情，宣佈在上海與廣州外海50公里處宣佈禁區舉行飛彈試射，禁止船隻通行。
然後CNN天天播放美軍軍事演習影片，一副要對中國宣戰的樣子。你是中國人，你會不會對耀武揚威的美國反感呢?
因為在1995年臺灣總統李登輝訪問美國，以及預計在1996年舉辦第一次中華民國總統"直選"(人民直接選總統，一人一票普選)。
在共和國認知這些行為就是搞台獨，於是共和國企圖干擾臺灣這次的總統選舉，於是就在95、96年舉行了兩次飛彈試射，飛彈點著在臺灣兩大港口高雄港以及基隆港外海，解放軍於同時間進行無數次的軍事演習，對臺灣進行」文攻武嚇」。那時候CCTV天天撥放軍事演習新聞片段，營造一副即將攻打臺灣的情景。
當時臺灣軍隊已經進入戰備狀態，各國已準備自臺灣撤僑。對臺灣人來說，臺灣人只是選個總統而已，中國的反應就如此激烈。
所以臺灣人的反應就是：中國就是一個侵略者。因為在共和國政府的宣傳裡，常常說一句話就是中國人不打中國人。
可是95、96年中國政府的軍事反應來看，中國政府明顯並不把臺灣人當作是自己同胞來看待，就是因為自己不是中國人所以共和國政府才如此的對待。也因為那年共和國政府的大動作，造成臺灣人民同仇敵愾的心理，大大加深自我身份認同的轉變，也導致1996年中華民國總統選舉李登輝的大勝。
《921大地震》 之後1999年，臺灣發生近年來最大的地震-921大地震，造成兩千多人死亡，十餘萬戶房屋損毀，是臺灣近年來傷亡最大的天然災害。
當時國際紛紛對臺灣伸出援手，但北京政府聲稱國際救援物資以及捐款必須交由北京政府統籌，各國救難隊需要北京政府允許才可以進入臺灣，並且多方延誤外國救援團體來台以及擅自代表臺灣人民向各國致謝。這些中國政府的作為，臺灣人民是看在眼裡，怨念在心裡。
《SARS非典疫情》 2003年SARS(非典)疫情擴散，由於中國掩蓋非典在廣東的疫情，直到擴散鄰國後才向各國道歉。但隨著疫情一發不可收拾，臺灣也成為非典疫區，由於臺灣不在世界衛生組織(WHO)內，無法接收最新防疫報告與防疫政策建議，因此臺灣決定申請加入世衛組織。
但此舉遭中國強烈反彈，時任國務院副總理吳儀在世衛大會中發表：『(對於邀請臺灣加入世衛組織)於法不符，於理不容，於情不合。』會後臺灣記者向中國代表團詢問說：『你聽到臺灣兩千萬人民的需要嗎?』中國官員沙祖康堅硬表示：『早就該拒絕了』，之後沙祖康更說出『誰理你們』這四個字。
『誰理你們』
非典對臺灣來說，是個全民危機，但中國政府在這次災害的表現嚴重失常，根本沒把臺灣人民當」人」看，尤其是當這個新聞在臺灣播放時，大大傷害臺灣人民的情感，對臺灣身份認同影響相當大。所以臺灣人民常常說，其實民進黨的最佳助選員就是最反對民進黨的中國共產黨。
除此之外，中國對臺灣人的在大陸的生活政策也令臺灣人覺得自己在中國被視作是外國人。如在2003年前，共和國遊樂區的門票是屬於雙軌制，也就是說中國人買較便宜的票，外國人買的是比中國人貴幾倍甚至是十倍以上的票。臺灣人一定得買外國人買的票，買中國人的票還被要求重新購票。再來是中國人對外國人進入西藏有額外的管制，必須申請入藏旅遊確認函(入藏證、入藏函)通過後才能進入西藏，但共和國的規定就是臺灣人與所有持有非中華人民共和國護照的外國人一樣，要進入西藏必須先申請入藏函，重點是港澳人士不用申請。
就以我個人經驗來看，有一次參與北京某團體的聚會，在北京成府路上的萬聖書店舉辦，其中一位參與的同學是臺灣人，而他是就讀於中國政法大學，那時因為時間已經太晚，肯定會因為門禁回不去宿舍，因此舉辦單位就幫他訂了一間在萬
聖書店旁的旅社。因為活動辦得很晚，超過十二點了，在中國住宿都要登記身份證，台灣同胞因為沒有身份證是拿著臺胞證入宿。可是當櫃檯人員看到那位臺灣同學拿著臺胞證時，就表明過了12點外國人不可以入住。
接待的人大同學就很生氣，說哪有這種規定!臺灣是中國的一部分等理由都出來了。可是櫃檯人員就是一句話說：『臺灣人就是外國人，你自己去問北京市公安，他們就是這樣規定，過十二點我們不收外國人。』然後要求我們離開旅社。
同行的一位大陸同學感嘆地說：難怪有一句話是這麼說的，臺灣人來大陸，『藍的會變綠的，綠的會變成深綠。』所以在共和國的身體力行下，告知臺灣人一個明確的訊息：『臺灣人不是中國人』。於是國民黨四十年的洗腦教育就被完全抵消，這也是共產黨令人欽佩的地方。
雖然臺灣人的自我認同在陳水扁執政下(2000~2008)，因為陳水扁刻意營造臺灣主體意識造成臺灣人的反感，自我認同的比率沒有明顯增加。
但在2008年後，隨著馬英九政府的親中政策開始實行，臺灣人的自我認同已呈現一去不復返潮流，馬英九再怎樣努力也無法阻擋臺灣民眾認為自己是臺灣人的認同了。
共和國政府又推波助瀾不承認中華民國的存在，宣稱臺灣是中華人民共和國一個省份。對臺灣人民來說，這是中國在公開說謊。
而且共和國的對台政策，就是消滅中華民國政權，意圖破壞臺灣人民的生活，在這樣的疑慮下，臺灣人怎會對『中國』有好感呢?
我想一定有人問，為什麼我不提中國對臺灣的好呢?因為從人性角度，人本來就比較容易記住別人對自己的壞，比較不容易記住別人對自己的好。
就像是現在大部份的中國人一談到美國與日本，便會聯想到美國帝國主義以及日本在二戰的侵略，而自動忽視美國在二戰時對中國的援助以及現代科技的發明與日本戰後給予中國的開發貸款以及各方面的無償援助。
而且，如果你是位男生，你想追求一位美好的女孩，你千方百計去討好他，可是你卻又常常對他拳打腳踢，你覺得你會追到那位女孩嗎?
中國常常義正嚴詞的要求其他國家『不要傷害中國人民的感情』，如果中國還認為臺灣人民是中國人的話，可不可以請中國不要再傷害自己人民的感情呢?
  3.臺灣人在文化上找不到認同：
要讓臺灣人認為臺灣文化是中國文化的一部分，認同自己是中國人，最簡單的方法就是讓臺灣人覺得自己的文化和中國大陸現有的文化相同。
但由於兩岸分隔60年，兩岸人民生活在完全不同的社會制度與社會風氣下，因此兩岸文化的演繹、對傳統文化的態度兩岸呈現極大的差異，而這差異讓臺灣人感受到臺灣與中國的不同。
在文化演繹的部分，海峽兩岸自1949年後經歷不同的政治制度與各自發生的歷史事件，使原本屬於中華文化圈的大陸與臺灣出現不同演化，如簡體字與繁體字的使用已使海峽兩岸字典出現的明顯差異，兩岸使用的中文辭彙差異相信有一日將比英美英文辭彙差異大的多。
再不用說對同一事件，兩岸人民很少有共通的情感。比如劉翔拿奧運田徑金牌，大陸人民會感到無比驕傲，但臺灣人民會毫無感覺。
王建民在美國職棒大聯盟拿勝投，臺灣人會感到歡樂無比，但大陸人會問說他是誰?更何況對同一件政治事件，如1995年李登輝訪美兩岸人民甚至會出現相反的感覺。在對傳統文化的保留上，兩岸也出現極大的歧異，大陸由於出現破四舊立四新等運動，對傳統文化不友善對待，這也是兩岸出現分化的原因。
如在臺灣民間信仰裡，臺灣的佛教、道教都可追根溯源到大陸。例如臺灣的媽祖信仰皆可溯源到福建莆田湄洲；三山國王信仰則可追溯到廣東潮州。
但由於文革破壞，造成大量廟宇損毀，現有湄洲媽祖祖廟以及廣東三山國王祖廟皆經歷文革浩劫，同樣遭到神像搗毀、建築遭破壞、祭祀儀式被迫中止、神職人員被批鬥等宗教迫害。雖於改革開放後得到臺灣各廟宇捐助修復，但已失去一脈相承統的情感。
且中華人民共和國由於提倡唯物主義和無神論，不鼓勵宗教行為，在臺灣常見的進香以及繞境等民間宗教活動在中國完全消失，這些原本屬於傳統中國生活中的一部分反而在臺灣深化，在臺灣人的眼中，現在中國所謂的宗教儀式以及傳統活動，表演的意義遠大於實際的意義。
在臺灣這些所謂的傳統，就是生活的一部分。
又加上黨對宗教採取嚴格管制，黨組織深入宗教團體，因此在中國常出現違反宗教精神的神職人員，於是在中國神職人員成為鬧劇：道士不像道士，和尚不像和尚。如河南嵩山少林寺住持釋永信，有『少林寺CEO』的稱號，將少林寺沾染了商業氣息，讓佛門重地失去了莊嚴。
相反的臺灣則是個明顯的對比，在臺灣對於民間宗教與傳統文化的態度與中國決然不同。在臺灣所有城鎮，都是以當地信仰廟宇為中心發展而成，廟宇在農村提供公眾集會的場所，舉辦各類活動，有時甚至廟宇成為了各種小吃的集散地，發展成夜市。
在臺灣祭拜神明是人們生活中的一部分(當然其他宗教或是無信仰者是例外)，人民遇到各種難解決的問題時都會去寺廟求問神明，以現在的眼光來說也許不科學是迷信，但人們還是習慣遵從祖先們方式試著去祈求神明保佑。你可以在月下老人前看到眾多善男信女在求姻緣，也可以望見考生們希望文昌帝君能保佑他們考試順利，而婦女們則是希望註生娘娘賜予夫妻一個健康的寶寶，這一切在臺灣的廟宇無時不刻的都可以見到，人民虔誠的向神明訴說他們的問題與希望，更多的是向神明的感恩。
於是在傳統文化的保存上，中國讓臺灣人徹底失望了，加上分治後雙方文化各自發展，讓臺灣人感受到自己與中國明顯的不同。   臺灣人認為他們是生活在現代中華文化下的人，他們喜歡中華文化，也認同中華文化。但我們要分清楚是，臺灣人認同的中華文化並不等於現在在中國的中國文化。
  4.中國在世界上的名聲
中國把中國這塊招牌給弄臭了雖當今中國聲稱已恢復大國榮耀，成為全球第二大經濟國，但由於國家價值觀明顯與大部分國家相異，且社會瀰漫著物質主義，導致人民精神信仰空洞與社會道德崩潰，讓外人見到中國發生的各種社會事件，只能用『驚人』來形容。
先前在廣東佛山，一輛貨車壓倒一位兩歲的小女童王悅後肇事逃逸，這已經讓人心痛。但驚人的是，隨後經過的十八位路人，卻視而不見不願伸出援手，從重傷的女童旁走過，爾後又一輛貨車同樣輾過後逃跑，最後才由一位元社會底層的拾荒者伸出援手，但早已過了黃金急救時間，女童在醫院離開了人世。這絕對不是個案，各種道德淪喪德的事情在中國早已層出不窮，如包二奶，公器私用、扶摔倒老人被告。還有地溝油、三聚氰胺奶、瘦肉精等眾多食品安全問題，相信你已經充耳不聞了。
中國的經濟在改革開放後蓬勃發展，已經是全球不可忽視的力量。除了令人稱羨的經濟層面外，卻沒有相對應完善的社會制度，以及令人嚮往的文化與價值觀，於是當今的中國卻在精神文明的建設上迷失了方向。
沒人把路口的紅綠燈當真，排隊是奢望而插隊是常態，在公共場合不顧他人大聲喧譁。『八榮八恥』成了空話，自私自利成為標準。
做事情爭先恐後，似乎慢一秒就是吃虧成為了中國人的標籤，諸如此類的負面印象不勝枚舉。當然中國還是有人堅持文明生活的，但是在廣大的同胞踐踏下，中國人的形象一瀉千里一去不返。
在國家的形象方面，不同的價值觀體系下的外人對中國充滿了不明白與不諒解。不瞭解為什麼中國要在西藏新疆的實施如此強硬的政策；搞不清為什麼北京能見度都已經不到100公尺了，都還只說是『輕微污染』；對中國為什麼用『墮胎』這種殺人的方式來控制人口感到恐懼；對為什麼關閉北京農民工子弟小學，讓三萬兒童輟學，另一邊卻投入十億人民幣執行希望工程援助非洲教育感到疑惑；不明白為什麼死於汶川地震的小學生名字是國家機密。
不明白有幾千萬人民生活在貧窮線下，但國家卻鋪天蓋地舉辦各種鋪張浪費的活動。不瞭解溫州動車追尾事件後，中國的決策不是停駛高鐵好好調查出事原因，而是就地拆解、掩埋車廂。太多太多對中國不明白，於是中國世界上第二大經濟國的光輝形象，蒙上了一層陰影。
這些對臺灣人來說，距離還太遠。但隨著開放大陸觀光客來台後，創造了臺灣一般百姓與大陸人直接接觸的機會，於是隨著臺北故宮博物院變成了吵鬧的夜市；大陸旅客無視禁煙的標示在禁煙區吸煙；甚至在臺灣著名景點野柳女王頭上，刻上簡體字的『中國常州趙根大』紀念到此一遊；為了搶奪阿里山小火車座位，兩團大陸旅行團在車站月臺大打出手。這些不文明的行為，直接影響了臺灣人對『中國』的印象。
所以臺灣人降低對『中國』的認同，有一部分的原因，就是中國自己把中國這塊招牌給砸了。   5.是生活方式的選擇
與其說臺灣人認同臺灣，不如說他認同的是臺灣的生活----一個民主制度與公民社會融合在一起的日常生活。他所受的教育，是教他如何成為一個公民，而不是有老師教導他說：『紅領巾，是國旗的一角，是烈士們用鮮血染紅的』。孩子本該快快樂樂的學習，不該有這些沉重的包袱。在他懂事後，也不必唸著連他都不相信的政治課本。
他畢業後，可以在全台找工作，想住哪就住哪，不必在自己的國家裡遷移還需要辦理個暫住證。
遷戶籍對他來說就像是便利商店買個東西一樣簡單，因為戶籍對他的影響，只在地方選舉時，選票上有著不同的候選人而已，甚至他的大學入學考試，也不會因為他的戶口，而降低他錄取重點學校的機會。
他即使生病了，也不會有沉重的經濟負擔，因為他知道臺灣的全民健保可以幫他分憂。他可能不知道全球前兩百名的醫院，臺灣就佔了十四間，僅次於美國與德國。他只知道他不必對醫生包額外的紅包，只需負擔非常低的金額，就能享受如此高質量的醫療。
他的政府大樓，大門永遠是敞開的，門口的警衛見到你只會笑咪咪地問你：『有什麼需要幫忙的嗎?』而不是先查驗你的證件。
他去辦理一個手續，志願者首先會遞上一杯熱茶，指引著他去抽號碼牌，之後他就可以坐在沙發上悠閒著看報紙，沒有人會插隊。
輪到他時，公務員也不會板著臉為你服務，而是貼心又迅速地完成你的需求。他想出國遊玩，不必為了申請檔而四處奔波，只需要輕鬆辦理護照就可以踏出國門。他也不必忍受繳了高額的費用，卻得到拒絕簽證的對待，因為他的護照可以在世界上百餘國暢行無阻。
他也不必擔憂昨天發的博文，會不會因為言論過於激烈而被刪除，在臺灣他的言論自由受到保障。他也不擔心買的房子七十年後會發生什麼事，因為是永久持有，他甚至可以把房子連同土地，傳給他的子子孫孫。他也不擔心房子會被強拆，因為法律會保護他的一切。
若遇到冤屈，他可以找記者，也可以找民意代表將冤情訴諸大眾，而不是含淚吞恨。他在臺灣，雖然看到的都是不和諧的新聞，但他知道這些新聞會促進臺灣進步。他更習慣看到新聞媒體對著政府的弊案窮追猛打，因為有盡責的媒體把關，人民更可以發揮選票的力量。
雖然他的食品含有塑化劑等毒物，但他的政府處理態度，讓他相信他以後絕對不會再吃到。
他的政府官員，會因為被媒體批評官舍浪費太多電，向全民道歉，並且宣佈搬離官舍自費租屋，而不會聽到官員霸氣的向記者咆嘯說：『不要拿法律當擋箭牌』。因為他知道，他可以四年後把票投給另外一位候選人。
他從小被媽媽教導對人要有禮貌，所以他習慣說對別人『謝謝』，當然對方也會很自然的回『不客氣』，『請』與『對不起』更常常掛在他嘴邊。當他在捷運搭乘電扶梯時，他會自動的向右靠攏。他也習慣為了一件事情而排隊等待。
他習慣生活在一個可以跟政府與社會溝通無礙的地方。他當對政府不滿時，他可以上街表達他的想法，政府也會和善的回應。
他也學會了包容其他人的想法，雖然他不是同性戀，但每年的同性戀遊行，他也會去支持。
他可以看他想看的書，不會看到刪節的版本。他可以出版他的著作，不會有人事先檢查。他可以自由的連上網站，不會看到『Error404filenotfound』，當然搜索資料時也不會出現『根據相關法律法規和政策，部分搜索結果未予顯示』他已經習慣這樣的生活。
當然，我們絕對可以列舉出一堆臺灣社會的『不好』，如臺灣的民主還有很大的民粹成分，臺灣媒體的新聞質量有待加強，臺灣社會離西方的公民社會還有一段路要走等說不完的缺點。但臺灣人很清楚，民主制度下的公民社會有自我調適的能力，我們都相信只要沒有外力刻意改變我們，臺灣社會會越來越好。所以與其說，臺灣人不認同自己是中國人，還不如說臺灣人不認同中國的生活，他們已經習慣了在臺灣的生活方式，並且深深愛上這樣的生活，這就是臺灣人認同自己是臺灣人的原因。
當然，他們也希望海峽對岸的人民也能跟他們過一樣好的生活。說到這裡，是否解答了你心中的疑惑?

Taiwan's Ralph Nader may be James Soong

2012-01-11T14:52:00.000+08:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/10/ED9V1MMSQE.DTL&type=printable

Joel Brinkley

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Taiwan is holding presidential elections this week, and viewed from the United States it almost seems as if Ralph Nader has moved to the island.

For Americans, the Taiwanese vote is not merely an interesting, distant piece of news. China remains fixated, even obsessed, with the island, determined to take it back one day. And while the United States is not obligated to fight on behalf of the Taiwanese, successive administrations for half a century have made it clear they would not tolerate a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

Which brings us to Saturday's election. The incumbent party, the Kuomintang, or KMT, advocates peaceful interactions with China, and during President Ma Ying-jeou's four-year term, relations with China have steadily improved. But the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, advocates formal independence rather than the deliberate ambiguity that prevails now. Beijing simply will not tolerate that.

At the height of the campaign, Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, declared once again that "achieving reunification" remains China's single-minded goal, adding: "We must strengthen our opposition to Taiwanese independence."

Taiwan is among the strongest democracies in Asia, in sharp contrast to China, an unforgiving totalitarian state. When Taiwan held its first two-party election in 1996, the Chinese navy held aggressive war games just off its coast, prompting the United States to send warships of its own into the Taiwan Strait.

A DPP politician held the presidency during the 2000s, and relations with China sank to levels that seemed headed for conflict. (That former president is in prison now, convicted of corruption.)

As the 2012 campaign began in earnest last year, President Ma consistently led most polls over his DPP opponent. But in November, James Soong, leader of the People First Party, an offshoot of the KMT, announced he would run as a third-party candidate - just as Ralph Nader did in the United States in 2000.

Who can forget the final results of Nader's campaign? He had no chance to win, but Nader did accrue about 100,000 votes in Florida, more than enough to deny Al Gore a victory in that pivotal state. That allowed the Supreme Court to hand George W. Bush the presidency. From that moment on, Nader has been branded with the moniker "the Spoiler."

In Taiwan, Ma and his DPP opponent, Tsai Ing-wen, are locked in a dead heat because of Soong. Some polls show Tsai ahead by a percentage point or two; others barely favor Ma. Fewer than 10 percent of those surveyed say they favor Soong, nearly all of that support taken from Ma, just like Nader and Gore in 2000.

Ma promotes peaceful relations with China during his term. But Tsai likes to say defiantly: "When Chinese visitors come, we have to put away our flags."

Washington professes neutrality in the race but has worked to boost Ma's candidacy without wanting to be obvious about it. The State Department has begun talking about offering Taiwanese visa-free travel to the United States, a privilege many Taiwanese would love to have. In fact, attending college here is an important status symbol for islanders; Ma studied at Harvard, Tsai at Cornell.

Ma touted the visa offer as an important indication of his strong relations with Washington. But the Taipei Times, which supports Tsai, opined: "Foolhardy or malicious, inadvertent or by design, the U.S. has taken sides" in the election. And with good reason.

Visiting the region in November, President Obama made a strong show of support for Asian democracies and promised to continue serving as the military counterpoint to China in the Pacific. But should China once again choose to send warships into the Taiwan Strait after the elections, the U.S. Navy might think twice before dispatching ships of its own.

China has developed and deployed an aircraft-carrier killer capable of striking warships almost 2,000 miles away, and the U.S. has no reliable defense because the DF-21D missile comes down toward its target at an angle that makes it difficult for anti-missile defenses to take it out. Military analysts say with certainty that the new missile has no conceivable purpose except to challenge U.S. naval dominance of the region.

China is watching the election closely; candidate debates are streamed live to the mainland. And several Taiwanese told me that China tried its best to persuade Soong to drop out of the race.

It didn't work. Now, if Tsai wins and the situation devolves into conflict, as so many people fear, one man will hold the lion's share of blame: James Spoiler-Soong.

Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University. (Due to the Saturday election in Taiwan, his Sunday column is running Tuesday.)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/10/ED9V1MMSQE.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

北京今晨大霧籠罩空氣短時間中重度污染

2012-01-10T21:52:00.002+08:00

總聽說北京空氣差，這會真是見識到了！感覺呼吸都不順暢，似乎置身在灰塵中。

--樵客

http://news.sina.com.tw/article/20120110/5530479.html

中新社北京1月10日電(記者于立霄)

10日早晨，大霧籠罩京城，局地能見度不足200米，市民出行明顯感覺呼吸不暢。北京市環保局(微博)官方微博上午10時發布消息稱，位於城市中心地帶的六個區、東南和西南部地區各站監測可吸入顆粒物濃度快速增長，單站最高小時濃度在300到560微克/立方米之間，屬於短時間中重度污染。

　　北京市環保局稱，此次大霧過程不屬於全市範圍，京城的東北和西北地區各站基本沒有受到大霧影響，污染物濃度最高時，每小時在30到80微克/立方米之間。中午時分，霧霾已基本散去。

　　北京市氣象台首席預報員廖曉農解釋道：“這場霧應該是平流霧和輻射霧的混合，平流霧是受空氣的水平運動影響，而輻射霧則是由於夜間隨著氣溫下降，空間中水汽凝結，飽和度增加，才因此形成。隨著冷空氣來臨，今天下午霧將基本消散，大霧天氣也將隨之結束。”

　　國家氣候中心主任宋連春曾介紹，9月至12月，北京共出現9次明顯霧霾天氣，霧霾日數45天，較常年偏多29天，為1951年以來歷史同期第三多。另外兩次分別是1980年54天、1979年48天。

　　受今早天氣影響，截至中午12:00，首都機場(微博)延誤滯留1小時以上航班80架次，取消43架次。

　　目前，北京正在打響一場以降低PM2.5為重點、提升空氣質量的攻堅戰。近期，北京市環保局首次公布了10年來北京監測PM2.5的歷史數據。這一舉措表明了政府與百姓之間開始形成良性互動，環保政策也更加透明、貼近百姓。

　　今日早晨北京再度出現的中重度污染，令民眾格外關注，微博上議論紛紛。記者注意到，不少微博發言者都主動引用了環保局微博上最新公布的北京監測數據，通過數據進行分析和評判。

　　北京正在逐步完善空氣質量信息發布制度，9日首次公布了全市27個監測子站的二氧化硫、二氧化氮和可吸入顆粒物PM10的單項指數。不少市民留言稱讚此項舉措，認為發布實時數據有利於信息溝通，安撫躁動的情緒。

　　據介紹，北京市PM2.5監測網絡建設已經啟動，力爭年底前完成全市PM2.5監測站點建設並發布實時監測數據。屆時，京城市民將能及時獲知PM2.5的最新研究性數據。完

AIT has nothing but praise for Tsai

2012-01-05T01:04:00.000+08:00

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/print/2011/12/12/2003520524

By John Tkacik /

Mon, Dec 12, 2011 - Page 8

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is a remarkably talented person. However, don’t take my word for it. It is a view secretly shared by US diplomats in Taipei whose job it is to gather intelligence on Taiwanese politics.
As a long-retired diplomat who once wrote (and read) US diplomatic cables from Taipei, I confess a guilty pleasure in reading the classified assessments from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) via that dastardly source, WikiLeaks. We old-school foreign service officers took great pride in our writing skills and I am gratified that the tradition still thrives in the AIT.
So, while the WikiLeaks release of secret US Department of State (and AIT) reports is indeed horrifying, illegal and unwarranted, it supplies powerful good reading. And, while WikiLeaks telegrams from the AIT have embarrassed many politicians in Taiwan, Tsai is not one of them.
The earliest WikiLeaks cables to assess Tsai’s career date from January 2006 when she was named vice premier. They are all very positive.
Although a lawyer by education, the AIT said Tsai “subsequently acquired impressive economic experience” as a trade policy official.
“Tsai is viewed as extremely capable and very persuasive” and, as all US officials who have dealt with her can attest, “she is a tenacious negotiator.” Tsai, who for five years had been the top China policy minister in the Cabinet, would have “more influence on cross-Strait issues than any previous vice premier,” the AIT said.
Describing the vice premier for the benefit of Washington’s officialdom, an AIT’s cable said: “[Tsai] is a savvy insider on formulating and implementing policy,” and “we expect her to be consistently well informed on issues and very clear about the policy positions.”
In a separate analysis, the AIT outlined her stance toward China thus: “With a background in international trade law, she has always been a strong proponent of Taiwan’s insistence that China must show respect for Taiwan before there is any substantial relaxation of cross-Strait ties, either political or economic. Nonetheless, she has supported some limited opening, including the mini-three links that allow direct transportation between Taiwan’s offshore islands and the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
When Tsai departed the vice premiership in 2007, the AIT lamented that her successor lacked Tsai’s “extensive economic background.” When she was chosen to chair the DPP, then-AIT deputy director Robert Wang, predicted that “a clean and efficient professional, Tsai Ing-wen will definitely burnish the DPP’s image and most probably improve its performance.”
As she finished her first year as the DPP chairperson, then-AIT director Stephen Young marveled that she had easily overcome the challenges that were radicalizing the DPP with her “moderate and cautious approach,” and that she moved swiftly to revamp the party’s divisive primary system and to centralize the nomination of candidates. She “tends to be low-key and businesslike,” but “she is firm in her decisions and quite demanding of her staff,” Young said. This was all the more remarkable because, Young said, she was “not really excited about politics.”
In another message, Young described her as a “thoughtful and a strong manager,” and praised her “moderate and soft spoken personality, as well as her academic and professional qualifications.” Young added that “her low-key personality may also disarm her competitors, who would do well not to underestimate” her.
After the DPP’s wins in the December 2009 elections, the AIT reviewed Tsai’s successes in retiring party debts and “managing the fallout” of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) corruption scandal. Speculating that Tsai could be the DPP’s next presidential nominee, the AIT reassured Washington that she was a “moderate leader eyeing a flexible China approach.”
This is how the AIT connected the analytical dots: “Her professionalism and international experience — she speaks fluent English — remain apparent as DPP Chair. She appears comfortable meeting foreign dignitaries and views relationships with Japan and the United States as particularly important to Taiwan. [Note: Tsai traveled to the United States once this year and to Japan twice. End note.] As MAC [Mainland Affairs Council] Chair, Tsai helped to promote a pragmatic cross-Strait policy and participated in talks with China to improve economic ties. At her recent policy briefing, Tsai said she intended to build a strong DPP support base in order to put forward a more flexible approach toward China.”
By February last year, the AIT telegrams said Tsai had “further consolidated her position as party kingmaker” and that “Tsai has won plaudits for her tireless campaigning.” For a woman who the AIT had said two years earlier was “not really excited about politics,” the AIT observed with admiration, “Tsai’s ability to push through her proposal on nominating candidates for the special municipality elections in Taiwan’s largest urban areas reflects her now unchallenged party leadership.” She had understood systemic weaknesses of her party and her “success has quieted [the] naysayers and has gained her the respect of party elders.”
Going through all these telegrams, I was struck by the absence of anything unflattering in the AIT’s descriptions of her. She obviously connects well with people. Several AIT cables made a point of noting “she has a wry sense of humor.” In one interview with an AIT officer, she said her first year as DPP chair was “like mandatory military service.”
By contrast, the AIT cables describing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), now running for re-election, are far more ambivalent. Ma is portrayed as “coming from a KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] mainlander elite family” possessing an “urbane sophistication and moderation,” a “corruption fighter” and a man “with a reputation as a telegenic, pragmatic, and clean politician.” However, the AIT’s analyses also are filled with disclaimers that some “both in and outside the KMT, have questioned his resolve and vision, and his ability to lead.”
On his election to the presidency in 2008, the AIT uncharitably observed that “his ability to win elections by wide margins is especially notable given his lack of grassroots political experience, standoffish attitude toward local political dealmakers, and soft leadership style.” It also shared the view of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) that “because Ma was raised and educated in a wholly KMT environment, he is a ‘nationalist’ who identifies with the Republic of China [ROC], not Taiwan.” The AIT concluded one analysis by saying he is a “workaholic” and “he is well-known for his generally detached temperament and bland personality.”
In 2009, the AIT said Ma was “becoming known as the ‘stay at home’ president [who] looked particularly ineffective when several of his key picks for high office were rejected by the Legislative Yuan, despite the fact that his own party controlled a 3/4 majority,” and “even though he is President, Ma lacks firm control over the KMT apparatus.”
In another backhanded compliment, the AIT said “with uncharacteristic boldness, [President Ma] is pushing forward vigorously on cross-Strait initiatives, counting on Beijing to cooperate and raise no political difficulties.” Even when the AIT portrayed Ma as “grateful for US expressions of support,” the AIT still said: “However, Ma still seems indecisive and risk averse when it comes to dealing with issues beyond his expertise.”
In the wake of the August 2009 Typhoon Morakot tragedy, the AIT sourly observed that “now, many people will be inclined to credit his previous [and future] blunders less to inexperience than to incompetence.” The AIT added that “political analysts agree that no one wants to see Ma recover [from the typhoon scandal] more than China’s leaders, who have found in the president an eager partner in improving cross-Strait ties.” By February last year, the AIT said Ma needed to “improve the image of his administration as woefully lacking communication skills.”
Of course, an incumbent president attracts far more criticism than a challenger, even in foreign diplomatic reports, but US officials in Taipei have dealt with both Ma and Tsai for decades and still the contrast between them in these official reports is startling.
US officials at different levels have watched Tsai for 20 years, first as a trade negotiator, then as a member of former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) braintrust. And as chair of the MAC during the first Chen administration, Tsai (like Ma, she has a doctorate in law) visited Washington frequently, having direct talks with very senior US officials, including top Department of State and White House officials. Former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, according to newspaper reports, was a particularly frequent interlocutor.
It is not my place to speak for them, but in those years, I never heard from them anything but the most effusive praise of Tsai’s communication skills, her warm interpersonal traits, her intellect, her “tenacious” negotiating style and her genuine likeability. And the AIT’s high assessment of her leadership abilities and her political vision is apparent from the reports available through WikiLeaks.
For the past decade I, too, have followed closely Tsai’s career. I hosted an Asia-hands lunch for her exactly 10 years ago in Washington on Dec. 13, 2001, and have met her on official calls and privately innumerable times since. I even had a chance to chat briefly with her during her visit to Washington in September and can attest that she impressed everyone who met her on Capitol Hill and at the State Department.
Everyone, that is, with the possible exception of an anonymous White House official who immediately phoned the Financial Times to say that “she left us with distinct doubts about whether she is both willing and able to continue the stability in cross-Strait relations the region has enjoyed in recent years.”
Clearly, that one official had not been reading the past 10 years of AIT cables. And, judging from how rapidly he scrambled to leak his “distinct doubts” to the press, he had planned his leaks well ahead of meeting her. Which leads one to suspect his “doubts” had little to do with Tsai and much to do with Beijing.
All that said, over the past decade, my view still has not changed: Tsai is a remarkably talented person and I doubt very strongly that the AIT’s view has changed either.
John Tkacik is a retired US foreign service officer and now directs the Future Asia Project at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Alexandria, Virginia.

網路上的浮光掠影

'Linsanity' crosses border as Knicks beat Raptors

Linsanity: Knicks benchwarmer becomes a star

An Odd Game a Grandmother Can Appreciate

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/basketball/jeremy-lins-grandmother-watches-along-with-taiwan.html?ref=sports

Justin Guariglia/Redux, for The New York TimesJeremy Lin's surprising star turn with the Knicks has created legions of basketball fans in Taiwan, including his grandmother Lin Chu A Muen.

By KEITH BRADSHER

At the Buzzer, It’s All Lin

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/sports/basketball/at-the-buzzer-its-all-jeremy-lin-as-knicks-edge-raptors.html

Mike Cassese/ReutersThe Knicks' Jeremy Lin drove to the basket against the Raptors in Toronto on Tuesday. Lin sank the game-winner with a half-second to play.

By HOWARD BECK

Anthony about to enter Dragon’s lair

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/melo_about_to_enter_dragon_lair_ZpcacDHk4eSfr0EbqkGM2L#ixzz1mFOIbiYB

By MIKE VACCARO

Just Lin, Baby! 10 Lessons Jeremy Lin Can Teach Us Before We Go To Work Monday Morning

Even While Struggling, Lin Finds Way to Lift Knicks Again

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sports/basketball/lin-lifts-knicks-past-timberwolves.html

By PAT BORZI

Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin impresses Kobe Bryant, among others

Jeremy Lin: Even Kobe bows to his star power

紐約直擊 這一夜 林書豪解答所有疑問

Can Lin add to his legend? There's reason to believe the answer is yes

Linsanity continues as Lin proves he's no fluke in win over Lakers Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/chris_mannix/02/11/jeremy.lin/index.html#ixzz1m5wivIaR

From Ivy Halls to the Garden, Surprise Star Jolts the N.B.A.

By HOWARD BECK

Lin Leads Again as Knicks Win 3rd in Row

By HOWARD BECK

Given A Chance, Lin Becomes New York’s Newest Star

The Jeremy Lin Show, Act II

Knicks’ Lin Fires Up Garden With 28 Points in First Start

By HOWARD BECK

香港不高興

台灣人這麼說這麼做-肖鋒╱廣州．《新週刊》總主筆

Taiwan's Ralph Nader may be James Soong

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/10/ED9V1MMSQE.DTL&type=printable

北京今晨大霧籠罩空氣短時間中重度污染

AIT has nothing but praise for Tsai

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/print/2011/12/12/2003520524

By John Tkacik /

Mon, Dec 12, 2011 - Page 8

Published on Taipei Times :

Justin Guariglia/Redux, for The New York Times
Jeremy Lin's surprising star turn with the Knicks has created legions of basketball fans in Taiwan, including his grandmother Lin Chu A Muen.

Mike Cassese/Reuters
The Knicks' Jeremy Lin drove to the basket against the Raptors in Toronto on Tuesday. Lin sank the game-winner with a half-second to play.

紐約直擊這一夜林書豪解答所有疑問