With the New York Knicks' 100-85 victory over the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, "Linsanity" officially hit a fever pitch. Over the last two weeks, the breakout point guard has led the formerly-struggling Knicks to seven straight wins — and secured his status as a bona fide phenomenon. The 23-year-old Harvard grad is the first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent to play in the NBA, and he's drawn comparisons to the NFL's Tim Tebow because of his devout Christianity and unlikely success. Here, a guide to the buzziest player in sports, by the numbers:
7
Consecutive games won by the Knicks since Lin came out of nowhere to lead the team
136
Points scored by Lin in his first five starts, the most by any player since the NBA and ABA merged in 1976
26.8
Lin's points-per-game average for the first six games in the Knicks' winning streak, an "eye-popping" figure, says Ian Begley at ESPN. Lin scored just 10 points during Wednesday's win against the Kings, but "his 13 assists prove he can run the Knicks' offense."
30
Turnovers Lin committed in his first five NBA starts — also a record. This is only "a minor linterruption to Linsanity," says Juliet Spies-Gans at The Harvard Crimson.
$3,919
Top price for a ticket to Friday's Knicks game against the New Orleans Hornets at Madison Square Garden, according to TicketsNow.com
$183
Minimum price for a ticket to Friday's game, according to TicketsNow.com. Before Lin's streak began, a ticket "could be had for as low as $47 on Craigslist," says Alison Bowen at Metro.
70
Surge in TV ratings, in percent, for Knicks games since "Linsanity" began
$50 million
Amount Lin is expected to boost the Knicks' revenue by next season
$14 million
Value of Lin's name as a brand, according to Forbes — a number that is climbing
349,124
Twitter followers Lin has on his @JLin7 account
28,505
Twitter followers he had on February 1
37,000
Twitter followers he picked up Tuesday night, following his last-second three-pointer against the Toronto Raptors, a tie-breaking shot that won the game for the Knicks
850,000
Followers Lin has picked up on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter
8
Consecutive days that Lin has appeared on the front or back cover (or both) of the New York Post, typically with a headline like "Lincredible!" or "May the best man Lin"
650
Percent increase in searches for the Knicks on Google in the last week. "About half of the increase has come from Taiwan," says Roger Yu and Michael McCarthy at USA Today.
550
Percent increase in traffic to NYKnicks.com and KnicksNow.com from Feb. 5 to Feb. 12, the highest weekly increase ever
3
Search terms related to Jeremy Lin — "knicks," "new york knicks," and "lin" — in the Top 20 of Google Trends on Thursday morning. On Wednesday morning, those three search terms were all in the Top 10.
$1,500
Cost of a Lin autograph on eBay. Before his surge in popularity, the typical price was $29.
168,000
Pieces of merchandise that sporting goods retailer Modell's has ordered for its flagship store in Times Square with "Lin" or "Linsanity" written on them
Sources: ABC News, CBS News, CNBC, ESPN, Bangkok Post, Forbes, Google Trends, Harvard Crimson, Metro, New York Post, TicketsNow.com, Twitter, TwitterCounter, USA Today (2)
