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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The NFL lockout lasted 132 days, affected a few weeks of preseason play, but ultimately did very little damage to the league’s public perception and to the fans’ willingness to spend millions to watch their favorite sport. Today, as NBA owners and players union officials meet yet again to continue what has been called slight progress from yesterday’s meeting, we celebrate the 133rd day of the NBA lockout. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the NBA lockout has lasted through what would have been the league’s training camps, preseason games, and now the first two weeks of the season. Throughout it all, commissioner David Stern has threatened to cancel the games through Christmas, as well as the entire month of December, but he has backed off of nearly every threat that he has made.

The current threat from the man who believes he is the best commissioner in sports is that the owners will not budge from a 53-47 percent split in the basketball related income, after they have been so generous in offering a 50-50 split for the past month or so. To put that into perspective, the players enjoyed a 57-43 split in the last CBA, so now the owners are demanding a complete reversal, with a few incentives included to make it look like they’re really being generous. Meanwhile, the players claimed that they would not budge from their demand of 52-48; however, there are new rumors that they’ve closed in on accepting the 50-50 split. Basically, the owners are getting everything they want – as I and many others predicted from the moment this lockout started – at the expense of the players and the fans. All in the name of protecting their own asses from their own inept decisions.

But nothing is settled yet despite optimism that a deal may be within reach. Thankfully, we have Nike to keep us inspired as a group of 30 billionaires wrestles with a group of 450 millionaires over billions of dollars with the reminder that “Basketball Never Stops.” And it’s true, because from the hardwood of our favorite colleges to the inner city streets lined with the dreams of children, basketball still lives. But I just can’t help thinking that Nike could be a little more honest with us right now. Somebody has to. So I came up with some suggestions for some better basketball ads.

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When it comes to sports “writers” I’m pretty bipolar over Jason Whitlock. On one hand, I think he’s absolutely hilarious in his unapologetic relentlessness of shoehorning himself into stories. His accusation that Derek Fisher is in cahoots with David Stern to convince the NBA players union to end the lockout by taking a deal that favors the owners is a riot, from the anonymous source to the way he peppered his rambling idea with comparisons to “The Wire.”

On the other hand, the same traits that make me laugh so much are also so incredibly abhorrent and pathetic for someone who claims to be a journalist. But that’s who Whitlock is and that’s what Fox Sports pays him to be, so we have to live with it while he “does the damn thing.” And the latest damn thing that he’s doing? Exposing Michael Jordan for being the greedy corporate pig that he is.

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We can say what we want (and we usually do) about Jason Whitlock, but no one can say he doesn’t have a sense of humor about himself. Case in point, the above photoshop inserting Whitlock’s head on some image from ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue” isn’t the work of some blogger trying to make fun of Whitlock, it is the image attached to his most recent column, “The truth is sexy…and so are NFL truths.”

Some of you may recall that Whitlock has either condoned (or possibly suggested) such image-related shenanigans before, when a smiling Whitlock was seen perversely peering through a keyhole at Erin Andrews that was used as the image for a column where he suggested that big time, mainstream sportswriters were jealous of Erin Andrews and proceeded to take vitriolic potshots at some of his colleagues, from Mike Lupica to Jay Mariotti. Whitlock has even softened his stance on one of his favorite targets, ham-fisted bloggers (if bloggers were ham-fisted, would Whitlock eat them? Huh), appearing on The Dan Patrick Show with Will Leitch and A.J. Daulerio.

Nevertheless, the above image is as disturbing as it is hilarious. The portly scribe has never looked better. Or worse. But either way, as long as he continues taking shots at arrogant, self-righteous windbags like Lupica and keeps bringing the self-deprecating humor about his weight and appearance, I’m willing to give him a pass – for now.

To be honest, I’m not sure what is more terrifying: the thought of Whitlock appearing partially-nude in “The Body Issue” (as opposed to his bulbous head getting photoshopped on top of Adrian Peterson’s body) or picturing Whitlock and Serena Williams comparing the size of their asses. Chilling.

Jason Whitlock, the former ESPN.com columnist whose interview with a blog got him banned from the four-letter, has been kicking ass and taking names in the wake of the Don Imus fiasco.  "Big Sexy" (a nickname nobody agreed to give him) usually just speaks his mind for the Kansas City Star and his new gig at AOL Sports, but with some recent TV appearances he's quickly outgrown "Around the Horn."

After calling out Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for being terrible representatives for black people on Tucker Carlson's show, Whitlock's ascent to political spokesman solidified with an appearance on Oprah.  And I'm not sure what Whitlock said on Oprah (my genetic code renders it impossible for me to watch), but considering Rosie O'Donnell announced she wants to marry him, it probably had something to do with having bacon in his pocket.

Oh, Jason, you dog!  Your powers of sexiness are too much for mainstream America.  Even overweight lesbians who believe in 9/11 conspiracies can't resist your charms.  But remember: with great power comes great responsibility.  You owe it to all of us to hit that.  Mmm-mm!  Rosie is fine!  I want the full report in your next column.

George Solomon has weighed in with his monthly analysis of ESPN's journalistic credibility. It's the same dull charade as always, but let's check it out anyway. On the T.O. maybe-suicide-attempt — but not really! … or was it?:

My gripe was that, in hindsight, some of the information that got on the air proved to be inaccurate. In general, the network's producers and editors need to be more restrained. It's better to be right — even if it means being second to the competition.

 Yes, the "competition." Who's the competition again? ESPN2? That one cable channel that has hockey?

On the Jason Whitlock "You can't stop me from having opinions!" blaze of glory: 

I've admired some of Whitlock's work over the years. But I also noticed that he, and some of his former ESPN colleagues, were unable to make a distinction between fair commentary and personal attacks or irresponsible generalizations… Attack journalism is not acceptable journalism in any form.

That's the best thing about blogging — it isn't journalism in any form. I just start rumors rumors and never follow up on them. Like I heard that after ESPN neutered George Solomon they let him keep his balls in a jar. Actually that may not be true. I have no idea what they did with his balls.