LIN-AMENT. LIN FIRST HARVARD GRAD TO PLAY FOR NY KNICKS SINCE 1953-54

Jeremy Lin doing his thing for Hahvahd Hoops 2006-2010

Jeremy Lin is only the 3d player from Harvard to play in the NBA.

He was a terrific player not only at Harvard, but in the Ivies.  He established a line of records unmatched in Ivy League history, and along the way, the Harvard basketball team, which had never amounted to a bucket of warm spit until Lin and Coach Amaker arrived, found its way to the Ivy League title and the NCAA tournament.

My sons and I watched these guys, led by Lin, play a ferocious contest in the Palestra against their arch-rivals Penn in 2010, which was a double overtime contest, and as Harvard finally won, largely due to the intensity and refusal to lose of Lin, who kept penetrating, dishing off, shooting jumpers, and doing whatever it took to win, it seemed like a passing of the guard.

The Daily Pennsylvanian made pun of Lin's name back in 2009 at Penn, showing once again Philly was three years ahead of NYC media.

So it’s no secret why Lin is the 2d best player on the knicks in win shares per 48 minutes at .187 after Tyson Chandler’s .248; or why his PER approaching 25 leads the team.  Lin plays defense, doesn’t turnover the ball, and is efficient both on offense and defense.  Also, he hustles.  In the Ivy League, he led across a large number of categories, including points, steals, rebounds, assists, assist to turnover ration, etc. and established benchmarks for a guard across many such categories–in fact, all time records for a guard to have such all-around abilities.

What we saw, watching him two years ago, was a guy who refused to lose.  He could penetrate and score; penetrate and dish out to the three line; penetrate and dish to the man beside him after drawing the double-team;  penetrate and dish to the open man; had amazing peripheral vision; could drop the three or the jumper if left unattended; always could run the ball and locate the open man on the run; could play defense; could steal the ball; could rebound and start the break the other way; in short, he was a complete player.

And Lin never stopped to breath.  He was always in continuous motion.  Harvard had a lot of talented players, but they looked kind of confused unless Lin got them the ball and he was coordinating the offense.  He was, in short, a terrific and talented point guard who had game.

A lot of Penn players have played in the NBA, but not so much Harvard.  Hockey has always been the winter sport at Harvard, along with playing the stock market and inventing new financial instruments the SEC can’t regulate.

Three players including Lin played in the NBA:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.cgi?college=harvard#stats::none

first was

Saul Mariaschin

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mariasa01.html

who was a 5 foot 11 inch player on the 1947-48 Boston Celtics.  The Celtics were in a predecessor league to the NBA, but who cares?

Here were Saul Mariaschin’s teammates on the Boston Celtics of 1947-48:

riebe, spector, sadowski, garfinkel with Saul Mariaschin Harvard Grad on 1948 Boston Celtics

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/1948.html

Here’s another of his teammates from that legendary Celts team:

CHUCK CONNORS.  Yes, the guy who later played the RIFLEMAN on TV.  Lucas McCain himself.  And a 6’5″ grad of Seton Hall, which in 1947-48 would have made him a giant player.  And he was a CELTIC.  You can look it up.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/connoch01.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Connors

Chuck Connors was a Celtic and played with Harvard Grad Saul Mariaschin in 1947-48

Chuck Connors also played baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers!

And he was a TV Star!

Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain the Rifleman

Chuck Connors was a Boston Celtic and and Brooklyn Dodger

The second player that went to Harvard and played in the NBA was

Ed Smith

Edward Bernard Smith (Ed)

Ed Smith was a New York Knick in 1953-54.  On that Knicks team, Ed played with Vince “Moose” Boryla, Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton, Al McGuire and Dick McGuire, and the famous Ernie Vandeweghe, and others well-noted.

That 1953-54 Knicks team finished 1st in the Eastern Division, going 44-28 under the helm of the legendary Joe Lapchick.  And they played in the old Madison Square Garden, which many hold in as high esteem as the old Boston Garden.

Nate "Nat" "Sweetwater" Clifton of the 1953-54 NY Knicks played with Harvard's Ed Smith

and here’s ernie vandewege v bob cousy:

Bob Cousy and Ernie Vandeweghe Reaching For Ball

Of course, Ernie has some bloodlines. Kiki Vanderweghe was a great NBA player, and now his granddaughter is a professional tennis player:

CoCo Vandeweghe professional tennis player and granddaugher of Ernie Vandeweghe who played on the NY Knicks with Ed Smith in 1953-54. Ed was the last Harvard alum to play for the NY Knicks, nearly fifty years ago

A Valentines Day Post – Greatest Love Films of All Time

In honor of Valentine’s Day, a list of greatest love films of all time:

top ten:

1) Body Heat (1981)
2) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1944)
3) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
4) Laurel Canyon (2003)
5) Basic Instinct (1992)
6) The Seven Year Itch (1955)
7) Cat People (1941)
8) Cat People (1982)
9) The Last Seduction (1994)
10) Ghost (1990)

next ten:

11) The Thomas Crown Affair (2005)
12) Sex Lies and Videotape (1989)
13) The English Patient (1996)
14) Unfaithful (2002)
15) Titanic (1997)
16) Love Affair (1939)
17) Casablanca (1942)
18) The Thin Man (1934)
19) Rebecca (1940)
20) The Notebook (2004)

next ten:

21) American Gigolo (1980)
22) The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
23) Dorothy Dandridge (2001)
24) After Sunset (1994)
25) Before Sunset (2004)
26) The Matrix (1999)
27) True Romance (1986)
28) Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend (1956)
29) Mulholland Drive (2001)
30) 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)

There’s probably about fifty more or a hundred more films that could go on this list, but these are certainly all fine films. What’s good about these is usually there’s something more than just the love story going on and that makes the film even better.

I forgot Love Story (1969), which of course was a terrific film and really did great box office at the time. Required viewing for all harvard freshmen. Bonus points for terrific footage of Harvard Hockey circa 1969, and additional bonus points for having a young and beautiful Ali McGraw in the movie. I had an acquaintance once from New York who actually grew up next door to Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen in Malibu in the 1970s, and was friends with their son/stepson Josh Evans (the son of Robert Evans and Ali McGraw) growing up, and apparently, it was very interesting growing up next to those folks.

Ali McGraw and Candace Bergen might have been the most beautiful actresses of the 1960s/1970s. A lot of people in Hollywood used to fight over them, that’s for sure. I guess this is where I add “The Getaway” (1973) to my list of films, except that it’s not so much a love flick as a classic action flick. It’s a good flick, no matter how you cut it.

–art kyriazis philly/south jersey
home of the world champion philadelphia phillies