Dan Hurley has been a Knicks fan his entire life. It started when he felt in love with Bernard King’s game in the 1980’s. The men’s basketball coach at Wagner College suffered with the rest of New York through 10 years of playoff-less basketball and the constant transition of the Mike D’Antoni era.

But as Jeremy Lin emerged into the hottest story around the professional basketball Hurley had to admit, “It’s pretty cool being a Knick fan right now,” he said.

Bobby Hurley, the legendary Duke point guard, had always been a Celtics guy. He says now he likes certain players. Kevin Durant is his favorite. But neither could escape the fandom of Linsanity. The Hurleys went to the Knicks-Lakers game at Madison Square Garden last week hoping to see first-hand whether the Asian-American sensation was the real deal.

Lin electrified the Garden with 38 points and 7 assists against Kobe Bryant last Friday while the Knicks plowed through the Lakers before beating Minnesota Saturday on their way to a five-game winning streak. The Hurley brothers had their answer.

“Sure looked real to me,” Dan said.

“[Its] the way he changes speed off the dribble, and he’s got a way that he slithers through the lane and finds a way to finish,” said Bobby Hurley, now an assistant coach under his older brother at Wagner. “The one thing you’ve got to be able to show people at that level (is) that you can score and then he’s been able to do that consistently when he’s played and everything else opens up.”

That’s high praise from anyone with the last name Hurley. Their father, Bob Hurley, won 26 state titles as head coach for St. Anthony’s High School in New Jersey and has been named coach of the year three times by USA Today. Bobby is a two-time NCAA champion and set an NCAA all-time assist record.

“It’s a great story, great for the NBA,” Dan said about Lin. “You don’t get a lot of stories like that. You don’t get a lot of underdog stories like that in the NBA, where a guy comes out of nowhere.”

The Hurleys know something about underdog stories. Bobby was expected to be a star in the pros when he was drafted to Sacramento in 1993 before a car wreck derailed his playing career. Dan played at Seton Hall before going into coaching. He posted a record of 223-31 at St. Benedict’s Prep before he took over at Wagner College two years ago, a team with a 5-26 record the season before.

With Dan Hurley as head coach and Bobby on his staff, Wagner won 13 games last season and is currently 21-4 overall and 12-2 in the Northeast Conference.

Two years ago, and then where we’re at now is certainly an underdog story,” Dan said. “It’s playing out like a Disney story. We’re just hoping it continues.”

As do the Knicks.