Long before the advent of Linsanity in New York City over the past 2 weeks, and before Jeremy Lin couldn’t resist dunking all over the UConn Huskies at Harvard, and after one closely follows his career origins, we discover he was an All State performer for Palo Alto HS in California.
Fresh off leading the Knicks to 7 straight wins, including setting NBA records for most points scored through any players making their first 6 starts, and even nailing a game winner against the Toronto Raptors, Lin is the talk of the basketball world, and by the looks of things, Linsanity is hear to stay.
While it remains a mystery why so many NCAA teams passed on offering a scholarship and every single NBA franchise decided not to draft Lin, there is no denying Jeremy had quite the accomplished high school career. Lin helped his squad to the ‘06 Cali Interscholastic Division II State Title and was actually named the 2006 San Francisco Chronicle’s HS Basketball Player of the Year and was a near unanimous selection for California State POY.
Lin’s new found popularity has even stretched to his old high school coach Peter Diepenbrock, who has been mobbed by media and television requests and is reportedly being flown in to MSG to sit courtside alongside the world’s biggest Knicks fan Spike Lee, for the Knicks game against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks this Saturday. Two of Lin’s HS teammates will also be at the game and Lee reportedly will also be wearing an authentic Jeremy Lin Palo Alto HS jersey.
In 2006, Palo Alto finished off a season for the ages going 32-1, winning a series of tight fought games before up-ending perennially nationally ranked powerhouse Mater Dei in the California State Title.
Jeremy Lin Game Winner in Cali State Finals:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
