What It’s Like To Play On The Same Team as Jeremy Lin (Or: Linsanity Has Finally Reached Quora)

The timeline of New York Knicks overnight superstar Jeremy Lin on social networks probably goes something like:

1. Twitter (“Who’s this Jeremy Lin guy?“)
2. Facebook (“Look at this Jeremy Lin guy.“)
3. Foursquare (“I’m watching this Jeremy Lin guy right now.“)
4. Tumblr (“Fuck Yeah This Jeremy Lin Guy Dot Tumblr Dot Com.“)
5. Reddit (“Here is everything about this Jeremy Lin guy that will be reported by news outlets in no less than two weeks.“)

And then:

6. Quora (“What is it like to play basketball with Jeremy Lin?“)

Well, not only has the question been asked, but it now has an answer, and it’s basically set Quora on fire.

[FURTHER LINSANITY: THIS IS WHAT JEREMY LIN HAS DONE TO THE STOCK MARKET]

Quora—the question-and-usually-intelligent-answers social networking site—got gifted with a pretty great thread: A former Harvard Basketball teammate and a former sixth grade basketball teammate of Jeremy Lin’s are both talking about what it’s like to play basketball with him. The questions have since been upvoted 400 times and read 10454 times.

There are some obvious, to-be-expected moments of awe:

We were chanting his name on the shuttle ride home, never imagining that a sold out Madison Square Garden would be doing the same thing a few years later.

The legitimately insightful tidbits:

…During the 4th quarter of the Nets game the announcer kept saying that Jeremy looked exhausted. What he doesn’t know is that Jeremy always looks like that. He would appear to be dead tired after 5 minutes of warm ups. No one really knew why, but no one really cared because he would always come out and put in work for 40 minutes.

And the funny, classically Quora-ephemera lines:

I was always more of a Madden guy, but from limited experience and word of mouth I gathered he was excellent at Halo.

It’s worth a read, definitely for fans of the Knicks and Jeremy Lin, but also as a guide to how Quora works best. Also, if anything, because it’s probably going to result in a few new Quora users by the end of the night.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek