GRANDMAESTA_30
patreon
Chapter 189: That Sweet Sound
🕑 Added 2025-06-22 14:35:13 +0000 UTCOn January 15, the Knicks finally made it back to New York.
Back at MSG, the surging Knicks were set to face the Toronto Raptors. Before tip-off, Lin Yi and DeRozan put on a little dunk show during warmups, trying to out-fly each other.
“DeMar’s heading to the Dallas All-Star Dunk Contest too,” Kenny Smith noted during the pregame. “The rookie is averaging 9.8 this season and throws down some sick fast-break jams.”
Of course, DeRozan wasn’t Air Diesel yet. Right now, the Raptors still revolved around Chris Bosh.
And maybe because Lin Yi had been turning heads, the Raptors were still holding out hope for Andrea Bargnani. Their 2006 top pick hadn’t lived up to the hype, but they were crossing their fingers he’d break out and get their European version.
Lin wasn’t buying it. He knew Bargnani’s ceiling—at best, a 21.4 PPG guy for one season. After that? Poof.
That said, Bargnani wasn’t exactly a bust either. Back then, the league was starting to fall in love with big men who could stretch the floor. He just wasn’t the star Toronto wanted him to be.
Anyway...
The Knicks lost that game.
Why? Well, they didn’t shoot 27 straight bricks or anything, but it wasn’t pretty. Lin Yi grabbed a career-high 21 boards, but the Knicks were rebounding machines, trying to save a sinking ship.
He finished with 22 points and 21 rebounds—20/20 night—but even David Lee was off. When the whole squad's clanking shots? Even Superman can’t save you with rebounds alone.
Meanwhile, Toronto played clean, efficient ball. Bosh was in his prime—doing damage inside and out—and showed why he was still the man in the North.
After the game, analysts were already talking about how stretch bigs were about to get pricier. The Raptors hadn’t shut Lin Yi down completely, but they showed he could be contained.
Back in the early 2000s, every team wanted a Shaq-stopper, so old-school bruisers were in high demand. But now? In the 2010s? Thanks to Lin Yi, suddenly everyone wanted bigs who could shoot and run.
Lin nearly choked on his postgame steak reading that take. Come on, he thought, like modern bigs weren’t already heading in that direction?
In his past life, Brook Lopez eventually reinvented himself as a spot-up shooter. The guy started as a low-post player.
Lin laughed and shook his head. “I didn’t change the league—I just sped it up.”
...
January 16
The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit
Knicks vs. Pistons—back-to-back.
And yep, the Knicks’ bricklaying tour continued.
It wasn’t just poor shooting this time, though. Fatigue was catching up.
Lin was still fine—he was averaging about 32 minutes per game, which kept him fresh. But let’s be real, he’s a 7-footer. You can’t expect him to go full Kobe mode every night. Playing at that level burns him out quickly.
Everyone knows January and February are peak injury months in the NBA. The numbers back it up.
Thankfully, the Knicks had avoided any major injuries so far. Just a few bumps and bruises here and there.
The Pistons weren’t the Bad Boys anymore, but they still played hard. Big Ben Wallace? Man… he was done in six minutes. Hit the bench and just watched the water cooler from there. Even Coach John Kuester had to admit Big Ben was starting to show his age.
Ben’s signature afro wasn’t fooling anyone anymore. Lin feasted in the paint, dropping 28 points and 18 rebounds. Another monster game.
Didn’t matter. Knicks still lost, 109–101.
January 18
The rematch—Knicks vs. Pistons, this time in New York.
This time, the Knicks handled business, blowing out the Pistons 117–88.
By now, fans were used to this team being up one game, down the next. Total rollercoaster. They could look like a Finals team one night and a lottery team the next.
Lin Yi played 33 minutes, putting up 17 points, 19 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks. Another near triple-double, and he was starting to earn a new nickname: The Rebound Machine.
The Pistons practically gifted him those boards. Guys like Stuckey, Rip Hamilton, and Will Bynum just kept bricking from midrange, and Lin scooped up everything.
That silver-level Rebounding Maniac badge? Yeah, it was paying off.
With his wingspan and instincts, Lin was now averaging over 10 boards per game—and nearly 8 assists. He wasn’t just a 20–10 guy. He was doing everything.
Still, the debates started popping up.
“Is Lin Yi really a big man?”
Traditionalists were scratching their heads, trying to figure him out.
January 19, 2010
The All-Star voting for the 2010 Dallas All-Star Game finally wrapped up…
And guess what?
Lin Yi just made NBA history.
With a whopping 5,785,410 votes, he officially became this year’s All-Star vote king, smashing the previous record. Yep—he even got more votes than LeBron and Dwight Howard combined.
Let that sink in.
Chinese fans + New York fans = unstoppable. They hijacked this year’s All-Star voting. The league’s servers are probably still recovering.
Now that the voting’s closed, the All-Star starters are locked in:
East: Lin Yi, KG, LeBron, Wade, and Iverson.
West: Stoudemire, Duncan, Melo, Kobe, and Nash.
The full reserves and coaches? Those’ll be announced on January 23.
Meanwhile, CCTV News from China carved out a whole three minutes just to hype up the All-Star game—and, more specifically, Lin Yi.
David Stern had the NBA PR machine in full gear, rolling out praise from legends left and right.
Even CCTV Sports sent a full crew to the U.S. to shoot a Lin Yi special. First time.
Every day on NBA China’s homepage, someone new was singing Lin’s praises. One day, it was Olajuwon. The next, Ewing. And even current players were chiming in:
“Lin’s earned his spot. No question about it.”
And then there were the haters.
Word got out that in Orlando, some salty folks even burned Lin Yi jerseys in public.
Meanwhile, actual Lin fans were losing their minds:
“Yo, what the hell?! We can’t even buy Lin’s jerseys and y’all out here burning them?!”
But then came the moment that really blew the roof off:
Kobe Bryant, in a post-practice interview, said:
“I like Lin’s game. He’s strong. I like his style—it’s cool.”
Yeah. Kobe. Called Lin Yi cool.
The fanboy almost fell off his chair when he saw the clip.
It hit even harder because the Knicks were about to face the Lakers again—round two of the season series, this time at Madison Square Garden.
Their first game had already made the YouTube rounds. That dunk? That block? That behind-the-back pass? Still trending.
This rematch? Gonna be broadcast nationwide in the U.S. and yes, CCTV is picking it up too.
David Stern, ever the showman, was already hyping it up:
44 vs. 24.
Lin vs. Kobe.
Lin couldn’t help but laugh. His Kobe fanboy deluxe was now turning into a weird blessing. A lot of hardcore Kobe stans had softened on him. Some of them even said:
“We don’t hate Lin Yi… we just want him and Kobe to go at it again!”
And here’s a fun twist: after their last game, Lin and Kobe exchanged numbers. Since then, Kobe had even texted him a few times, advising him like:
“Shoot more. The more you shoot, the more you get to hear that sweet sound…”
That swish—basketball kissing the net.
