If it weren’t for the fact that the national sports media is like a small child, enamored with shiny objects, somebody might actually take a second to point out that the New York Knicks and “Linsanity” have reversed course with a 3-game losing streak to drop to 3 games below .500. Fortunately for them, the New Orleans Saints’ bounty system and Peyton Manning’s free agency are much sexier stories, so nobody really cares that the Knicks have about as much chemistry as an art school. *pushes up glasses, snorts*

But that’s not entirely fair, because while Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler struggle to develop the three-headed monster that James Dolan craves, their teammates are still having fun. Particularly, Landry Fields, Steve Novak and Lin, who took the above picture (Tweeted by Fields) when the trio visited Novak’s alma mater, Marquette University, earlier this week.

And it got me thinking – what if Lin doesn’t mind the fortune cookies and the stereotype puns? What if he’s just like my good friend who is also Chinese-American and makes more jokes about his heritage than anyone else? Does that make it all better? Should that ESPN guy who writes the lamest apologies get his job back? Maybe we’ve been ignoring what matters most this whole time – Lin’s opinion.

But then I remembered it’s Friday, so here’s a very important Kate Upton GIF…

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New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin is a Harvard grad, yet he sleeps on his brother’s couch. He’s been cut by two teams already since being signed as an undrafted free agent out of Harvard and he’ll make a prorated salary of less than $800,000 (*violin*) with the Knicks, who signed him to be a third stringer back in December. And none of that means diddly, because Lin is the most popular man to wear a Knicks jersey since Patrick Ewing.

Since getting his big shot on Feb. 4, Lin is averaging 26.8 points and the faltering, struggling, sucktastical Knicks have won 5 in a row. And they’ve done it without Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, who might as well both be on a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle right now, as far as Knicks fans are concerned.

Since the beginning of the weekend, the Modell’s Sporting Goods Inc. outlet on 34th street and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, near the Knicks’s home court, has run through multiple shipments of Lin gear, including his No. 17 jersey and T-shirts celebrating “Linsanity,” the catch phrase adopted by the team since the Asian-American Harvard University graduate led the Knicks to a season-best five straight wins in eight days.

The jersey is the NBA’s top online seller since Feb. 4, when Lin first dazzled NBA fans. Sales of Knicks merchandise are higher than any other team in the league since then, with the team accounting for five of the 10 most popular items. (Via Bloomberg)

Oh but hey, I forgot to mention – did you know that Lin is Chinese? Because that’s apparently something that people care about, too. Not that he’s busting his ass to prove he was overlooked at every level of his basketball development, but because he’s a novelty that people can make jokes about, like the one above. For instance, Jason Whitlock set the bar for fun at Lin’s expense on Friday with a Tweet about the penis size of Asian men.

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If Grand Theft Auto and Tiger Woods ever spawned their own game, it would be damn close to Ghetto Golf, a video game looking to turn the corner in development and find a publisher. From MTV’s Multiplayer:

“Ghetto Golf” has its roots in Oakland California where Raphael Saadiq, former star of 1990s R&B group Tony! Toni! Tone! used to play golf on the streets, improvising golf holes with whatever he could find.

Decades later, Saadiq has his own Denver-based video game company, Illfonic, co-founded by his studio engineer, Brungardt. Their first project is “Ghetto Golf,” a planned downloadable game featuring a scrappy young guy named Vonte in the Bay Area who has to find and complete tricky holes of golf that are set in the wilds of the city — and in the line of fire of gangsters, cops and enemy golfers.

Sold. There are few things that bring me joy like stealing a police car in GTA: San Andreas, with the possible exception of watching a child cry. Of course, I’ll probably play the game every day for three months, and then Christmas Ape will come over and crush me in that game without ever having played it. He’s cagey like that.

|via Devil Ball Golf|

Punch to face! Me so solly!

I can’t possibly thank Deadspin commenter Gourmet Spud enough for pointing out the racially insensitive nature of Shane Mosley’s caricature of an Asian person during his upset of Antonio Margarito.  Shame on you, Mr. Mosley.

Mickey Rooney, however, thinks it could use a little more yellowface.

Banner credit: AFP/Getty Images

How many Polish guys does it take to misname a regular season NBA game? Surprisingly, just one: Bucks' head coach Larry Krystkowiak. Yes, the so-called "Chinese Super Bowl" was less than spectacular as the Rockets' Yao Ming scored only 12 points and his countryman, Yi Jianlian, manged only 6 for Milwaukee. (Incidentally, #36 on the menu at the Dragon Palace, also called the Chinese Super Bowl, is also less than spectacular. It seems like a lot of food, but you're hungry again one hour later.) Yao and Yi's poor play didn't affect Tracy McGrady, who led all scorers:

"Two hundred million people watching — that's when you've got to bring your 'A game,"' said Tracy McGrady, who led the Rockets with 33 points. "That's amazing that there's double the people watching a regular season NBA game as the Super Bowl." 

From that statement, it may seem like McGrady only performs when there's a lot of people watching. Not my T-Mac, perish the thought. Anyway, Milwaukee ran with Krystkowiak's characterization of the match-up:

The Bucks decided to make Saturday's game into an early Chinese New Year party, featuring Chinese musical performers in the stadium's atrium area before the game and adding Chinese fare to the concession stands. Signs were posted saying "Happy New Year" in Chinese and English.

It's about time. Milwaukee hasn't celebrated a new year, Chinese or otherwise, since 1979. -KD  

Photo: Getty Images