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Rockets land, bring Linsanity to Manila
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Asian-American National Basketball Association sensation Jeremy Lin soaked up the adulation from a basketball-obsessed Philippines yesterday, as the Houston Rockets geared up for a new season that many fans now expect them to win.
“I’m definitely feeling the love in the Philippines,” Lin said as he was mobbed by dozens of reporters and photographers in his first visit to a country that considers basketball its national sport.
James Harden may be the Rockets’ top scorer, and the team may now have the NBA’s best big man in Dwight Howard, but Lin, the league’s first American-born player of Taiwanese descent, was the star turn as Houston turned up for practice in Manila ahead of tomorrow’s preseason game against the Indiana Pacers.
He recounted a visit on the team’s arrival on Monday to a shopping mall to look at NBA-themed merchandise and eat sushi, saying: “I’ve walked around the mall where people are so polite and respectful... I’ve been blown away.”
Lin, 25, became an overnight sensation with the New York Knicks early last year when an injury to the starting point guard thrust him into surprise stardom. His life story was turned into a film, “Linsanity”, which began showing at theaters across the United States this week.
Tickets to the Rockets-Pacers game were almost sold out soon after they went on sale in early September, organizers said, even though the best seats cost between US$770 and US$1,200 — around 80 times the average daily wage of an ordinary laborer in Manila.
Lin, who was later traded to Houston, had a mixed performance in his first full NBA season that saw the Rockets eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
“There’s definitely some difficulties and hurdles, but I think that’s part of the natural progression as a player,” he said.
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