Rising Star

W hat a great stroke of luck this winter for the National Basketball Association (NBA). After the walkout of 2011 that featured multimillionaires arguing with billionaires over their fair share of the league revenues, when most sports fans could not be coaxed away for the National Football League playoff games and the National Hockey League, enter phenom Jeremy Lin to save the face of the NBA. David Stern, the commissioner of the troubled NBA, could not have orchestrated better timing or story. In just 10 days, Lin goes from being an unknown point guard substitute, on the bubble with the New York Knicks, fearing he could be banished from the league any day, to superstar. Lin comes off the Knicks bench on February 4, 2012, to score at least 20 points in his first 3 starts, followed by a 38-point outburst against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on February 10, 2012. The best side to that story is Bryant claiming that he did not even know who Lin was before they played the Knicks. How humbling is that— to get outscored and beat by someone you've never heard of in the NBA. Lin's entrance into the NBA has been nothing short of spectacular. He scored 136 points in his first 5 NBA starts: the highest first 5-game point total in the NBA in almost 40 years. He goes from being an unknown backup player to the cover of Sports Illustrated 2 weeks in a row, along with the cover of Time magazine. Not bad for a guy who had to sleep on his teammate's (Larry Fields) couch the night before his first NBA start and breakout game as he set New York on fire. My hope is that he really isn't just a flash in the pan whom no one will remember next season except for his short burst of stardom in February. Will Lin continue to be a prolific scorer once team defenses adjust to his high-energy point guard play? I really hope so. Why, you might ask? Because, like it or not, professional athletes are role models for a lot of kids. Even though many professional athletes don't see it as their responsibility to conduct their lives in a responsible, respectable manner because of the kids that follow their careers. Many players are not worried about how their actions might influence the youngsters who idolize and …