Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity

Now that the Tim Tebow fever has died down—at least until next football season—we are witnessing the rise of Linsanity, the clever description for the hoopla surrounding New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin.

Soon, the world will get an inside look into Lin’s life and development as a professional basketball player in a new book by Timothy Dalrymple called, Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity. The book is scheduled for publication in May  on the Center Street imprint.

Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin recently became a New York Knicks phenomenon and he’s the NBA’s first American-born player of Taiwanese descent. The book will chronicle Lin’s high school, college and early career in the NBA with particular emphasis on the media explosion surrounding his success as starting guard with the Knicks.

Meanwhile, The Mercury News is offering some early details in an exclusive interview.

“Sometimes you come up against a mountain and you end up making the mountain seem bigger than God,” Lin told The Mercury News, describing his experience last year playing for the Golden State Warriors. “I was on pins and needles. I was putting all this unnecessary pressure on myself. Now, I feel like I’m free out there.”

With the Knicks, Lin said he’s not playing to prove anything to anybody.

“That affected my game last year and my joy last year. With all the media attention, all the love from the fans (in the Bay Area), I felt I needed to prove myself. Prove that I’m not a marketing tool, I’m not a ploy to improve attendance. Prove I can play in this league. But I’ve surrendered that to God. I’m not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore.”

With success, Lin says there is so much temptation to hold on to his career even more now—to try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that’s not how he wants to do things anymore.

“I’m thinking about how can I trust God more. How can I surrender more? How can I bring him more glory?” Lin asked. “It’s a fight. But it’s one I’m going to keep fighting.”

Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity will explore how Lin’s Christian faith, family, education and cultural inheritance have contributed to his success. The book will also include interviews with basketball experts on Lin’s future in the NBA, Asian-American thought leaders on the role of race in his rise to stardom, and renowned Christian athletes and pastors on the potent combination of faith and sports.

Dalrymple is writing the book and his interviews with Lin over the past two years followed the basketball phenom even before his emergence on the world stage. Dalrymple has interviewed athletes and coaches from Lin and Tony Dungy to Michael Chang and Carly Patterson on the role of faith in sports.