Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks playmaker who has come off the bench to become a basketball sensation, will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s February 20 edition, the magazine announced on Wednesday.
Making the magazine is an iconic moment for an American sports star and it comes barely 10 days after the player began with the first US-born player of Taiwanese and Chinese heritage living a dream by becoming an NBA star.
The undrafted 23-year-old point guard has averaged 23.3 points and 7.4 assists in leading the Knicks to six triumphs in a row, five of them when New York was without top stars Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.
Lin is the first Knicks player to appear on a Sports Illustrated cover since Marcus Camby in 1999.
Lin has the best-selling jersey in the NBA over the past week and his heroics have prompted fans in Taiwan to wake up early to watch his games.
After going undrafted out of Harvard in 2010 and being cut by Golden State and Houston last December, Lin took what might have been his last chance to make an NBA lineup and scored 136 points in his first five starts, the most by any player since 1976.