• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print

Jeremy Lin will play in the Rising Stars Challenge after all.

The New York Knicks point guard was added Thursday to the roster of players for the Feb. 24 game at All-Star Weekend in Orlando, just before Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley began drafting for their teams.

"Obviously, it's an honor to be able to play with (teammate Landry Fields) in that game. I think Iman Shumpert should be in there, too, but that's the way it goes," the second-year player said.

Lin admitted that he was surprised to learn on Thursday that he'd been selected.

"I thought the rosters came out a while ago, but then people just started telling me I made it," he said.

New York's current sensation also has been invited to play a role in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest.

Sources with knowledge of the league's plans told ESPN.com that Knicks rookie Shumpert -- one of four dunk-contest entrants alongside Houston Rockets forward Chase Budinger, Indiana Pacers swingman Paul George and Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams -- will be enlisting Lin to "assist" him in a manner similar to the help 2011 champion Blake Griffin got from then-Los Angeles Clippers teammate Baron Davis.

O'Neal took Lin with his third pick after starting with the Clippers' Blake Griffin. Barkley took Cleveland's Kyrie Irving at No. 2.

Miami's Norris Cole also was added to make 20 eligible players.

Barkley praised Lin's addition, saying it was "really stupid the NBA denied him in the beginning."

Lin, a second-year point guard, has started six games and led the Knicks to seven straight wins. His strong performance the past two weeks has drawn international attention, including that of President Barack Obama, and led to debate about whether he would be invited to participate in All-Star Weekend, which begins next Friday and culminates with the All-Star Game on Feb. 26.

A league source Thursday confirmed a New York Daily News report that the NBA will make Lin part of the field for the Haier Shooting Stars competition during All-Star Saturday night.

NBA commissioner David Stern told USA Today earlier this week that Lin would not be a special late addition to the BBVA Rising Stars game that features rookies and second-year players, but the NBA was pressured to add him after he scored 136 points in his first five starts, most by an NBA player since the merger with the ABA in 1976-77.

Lin, who attended last year's All-Star Game in Los Angeles, said he wasn't concerned about any fatigue associated with participating in All Star Weekend.

"My season's only been seven games long. I'm doing OK. I'm just going to play in one game and it's not really going to be taxing on my body," Lin said. "(I'll) probably stand around half court and throw a couple alley-oop passes. That's more just a fun thing and an honor to be out there."

The sports world has been captivated by the Lin phenomenon. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks -- who visited the Knicks on Sunday -- said the story is good for the league because it comes in the nation's biggest media market.

"If it was happening in Charlotte, no one would know," Cuban said, exaggerating for effect.

"New York is still kind of the mecca of the media for basketball," Cuban added. "It's great for the league, so you've got to love it. And Jeremy Lin is a great kid, so I'm happy for him."

The fact that Lin is the first Asian-American starter in NBA history adds intrigue to his fascinating underdog tale, Cuban said.

"Oh, absolutely," Cuban said. "I don't know about cultural impact. It's just because it's a question of the odds. Just statistically speaking, not culturally speaking, it's an aberration for the same reason that Yao (Ming) and Yi (Jianlian) and some of the other Asian players were.

"Whenever an underdog comes out of nowhere and doesn't fit a particular profile ... everybody profiles athletes, right? So to have him come in and be counter to everybody's profile or expectations -- right or wrong -- draws attention and that's good. Hopefully, that will encourage other kids and even more diversity with kids who play basketball."

Lin started his NBA career with the Mavericks' Las Vegas summer league team in 2010, when he was the best guard on a roster that included recent Dallas first-round picks Rodrigue Beaubois and Dominique Jones. Lin's stock rose significantly when he outplayed Washington's John Wall, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 draft, in a summer league game.

The Mavericks, who wanted Lin to develop for a season with their D-League affiliate Texas Legends, offered him a one-year guaranteed contract. However, Lin opted to return to his native Bay Area when the Warriors offered him a two-year deal.

The Warriors let Lin go while clearing salary-cap space after the lockout was lifted in an unsuccessful attempt to sign center DeAndre Jordan. The Rockets picked Lin up and waived him a couple of weeks later on Christmas Eve, creating a roster spot to sign center Samuel Dalembert.

And the Knicks had planned to part with Lin before his contract became guaranteed, until he suddenly started producing like an elite point guard.

Warriors general manager Larry Riley admitted that his team missed out on someone they thought would only be a fluke.

"We can't take the position he's a fluke, because he isn't," Riley said in a phone interview with the Contra Costa Times. "Jeremy Lin will have a 10-year career in this league. People are expecting him to fall off the face of the earth. That's not going to happen."

Keeping Lin was not a priority for the Warriors, who went hard after Jordan. Riley told the Contra Costa Times that co-owner Joe Lacob was the most reluctant to dismiss Lin.

"(Lacob) really didn't want to do it, more than any of us. But we knew we had to" cut Lin, Riley told the paper. "We needed a center, and we felt we had a good chance to get one."

"I never saw Jeremy Lin as a starter on a winning team in the NBA," Riley continued. "I did see him as a backup. So he did exceed our expectations. He exceeded everyone's expectations, except probably his own."

Linsanity on ESPNNewYork.com

When it comes to the Knicks sensation, ESPN New York is all-Lin. Lindex

Blog: Will Lin's return be a success? »

There is no longer any question about whether Lin, who didn't get a single Division I scholarship offer, is good enough to play in the NBA. The question is whether he will be a great NBA point guard.

"We'll see," Cuban said. "The question with every rookie isn't, where are you at? It's, what's your make-up to get better?

"[There are] a lot of comparisons to Steve Nash. Everybody was booing Nash [early in his tenure in Dallas]. Everybody thought he was a mistake because he just showed flashes and wasn't consistent. But Nashie worked his ass off and we see where he is today, 90 years later. Jeremy has that kind of make-up, too, but you never know."

Cuban, like many others, is rooting for Lin from afar. Cuban just won't root for Lin from courtside seats.

"For obvious reasons," Cuban said, "I hope Linsanity comes to an abrupt and screeching end when we play them on Sunday."

The game will be at Madison Square Garden, which also has seen a boost from Lin. Madison Square Garden Inc., the company that owns the Knicks, the Garden and the namesake sports network, has seen its stock surge 9 percent since Lin began his heroics Feb. 4, reaching an all-time high of $33.18 earlier this week before retreating slightly to close at $31.91 Wednesday.

"Rangers and Knicks fans do tend to buy the stock when the teams are doing well," Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce said.

His impact doesn't stop there. Stories about Lin have appeared in newspapers around the world, including the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times in London, France's L'Equipe, Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport and the Spanish newspapers Marca and AS.

"In a world of cynicism, bluster and manufactured superstars, the search for genuine sporting magic has never been more real," Ben Smith wrote in The Times. "Lin's supernova explosion is just that, the stuff of fairy tales."

So it's a no-brainer that the NBA would want its newest star taking part in All-Star Weekend.

As for Lin and Shumpert in the dunk contest, it will have a new format that will consist of only one round and in which the winner will be determined solely by fan vote.

The four competitors in the 2012 dunk field, who are all first-timers, each will get three dunks, with fan voting to open after the they completes their first dunks.

When Griffin won on his home court at Staples Center last season -- most notably leaping over the hood of a car and slamming home a lob from Davis as the former Clipper peered out of the sun roof -- dunkers had to complete two rounds, with the first scored by a panel of courtside judges that determined the two finalists.

Only fan voting will be utilized in the new format, with online and text voting, as well as via Twitter for the first time.

Marc Stein covers the NBA for ESPN.com, while Tim MacMahon covers the Mavericks for ESPNDallas.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print