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Health & Fitness

Number 17, Jeremy Lin, Empowers the Soul

For those of you who may not know, the past 10 days have been electrifying here in New York. Yes, even more electrified than the big apple is on a normal basis.

 

For those of you who may not know, the past 10 days have been electrifying here in New York.  Yes, even more electrified than the big apple is on a normal basis.

I attended an event in the city last week for which I needed to walk from Penn Station to midtown Manhattan. As soon as I walked upstairs leaving Penn, I noticed large crowds that had gathered outside of Madison Square Garden staring at the large screen TVs above the arena alerting me to the fact that something a bit unusual was going on.

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They were playing video of the Knicks vs. Lakers game which made perfect sense to me so we went on our way up 7th Avenue/Broadway into Times Square. Upon our arrival in Times Square we again couldn’t help but notice that large screens everywhere were showing the Knicks game as crowds of people seemed drawn to the big board like it was the Super Bowl.  The large Toy Story characters in costume looking to take photos with families seemed invisible, stairs were occupied with smiles and I still didn’t understand what was happening right in front of me. I may be a football, golf, track and field, tennis fan, but basketball was outside my familiar circle. I went on my way with my friends but that special feeling of knowing we were on the cusp of something outstanding stayed with me.

Within days the media frenzy unfolded and I found out what all of the commotion I had witnessed in the city was all about… Jeremy Lin has risen from his undrafted history.

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Certainly Jeremy posses a pedigree background but without the glitz and glam I have witnessed and we have all become accustomed to in professional sports. Jeremy is warming the hearts and empowering the souls of not only New Yorkers but folks all over the world. Fans in Asia & Taiwan are all ecstatic with number 17 in what Twitterati call “Linsanity.”  I watched a video that was posted on the NBCNY Facebook page that showed Modell’s has been receiving multiple shipments of blue jerseys holding the number 17 on their back every day in order to keep up with the demand from Lin’s fans. His humble ways are loveable and his team player charm is admirable. While traditional media pushes the stories, Twitter/blog chatter on the web spawns terms such as “Linsanity” and “Linmania.” These terms have been trending in the social media networks and continue to grow in popularity.

The bottom line is we are all celebrating something special that puts smiles on our faces as we sit on the edge of our seats waiting to see the next Knicks game. Similar to the way that we have all embraced the beautiful voices of Whitney Houston and Adele as we bid farewell to one and welcome back the other, perhaps those jerseys with the 17 on the back will help us all to celebrate the great things in life. 

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