Haven't we heard Jeremy Lin's story before?

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There has been very little new in basketball since someone decided to cut the bottom out of Dr. Naismiths peach basket, all those years ago.

Yes, the players are bigger and stronger than they used to be. And yes, some visionaries put in a shot clock and a three-point line and all that. But the same stories pretty much get recycled, over and over again.

So with that in mind it seems fair to ask: Isnt Jeremy Lins tale much the same as that of one Billy Ray Batesonly with a potentially happier ending?

Lin did it again Sunday afternoon, piling up 28 points and 14 assists in leading the Knicks to a 104-97 victory over Dallas in Madison Square Garden. A product of Harvard (not to mention the NBAs Developmental League), Lin, a Taiwanese-American, has now scored exactly 200 points in his first eight NBA starts, of which the Knicks have won seven.

Lins emergence and the Knicks resurgence, naturally, have huge implications for the suddenly reeling Sixers, whose hold on the Atlantic Division lead appears tenuous. How could they ever hope to fend off a juggernaut featuring not only Lin and Amare Stoudemire, but now J.R. Smith and (very soon) Carmelo Anthony? Sixers fans, it appears, would do well to hope for an implosion, that so many combustible pieces eventually self-destructandor that Spencer Hawes finds a miracle cure for his aching Achilles.

But back to Lin himself. He has basically come out of nowhere, energizing a flat-lining franchise and exciting the masses.

Again, much the same as Bates, a broad-shouldered guard who emerged not from the D-League but the Continental Basketball Associations Maine Lumberjacks late in the 1979-80 season to spark Jack Ramsays Portland Trail Blazers to a playoff berth.

Ramsay, the St. Joes legend and Basketball Hall of Famer, did not respond to a voicemail message left last week at his home in Naples, Fla. But Orlando Magic assistant general manager Dave Twardzik, who played guard for the Blazers back then, said over the phone the other day that he can see the parallels in the two tales.

He has certainly given the Knicks and the New York market a tremendous shot in the arm, he said of Lin. And because of social networking, its not a regional thing, but a national thing.

Back in 80, it took much longer for word of Bates exploits to spread. As Twardzik noted, it was pre-cellphone, pre-computer, pre-social media.

The other differences in these two stories are just as pronounced. While Lin appears to be grounded and worldly, Bates was the second-youngest of nine children born to Mississippi sharecroppers. He somehow passed through Kentucky State, even though he later admitted he had trouble reading, putting up huge numbers on the court. And he flunked trials with the Rockets and Sixers before getting his big break.

By all accounts he was a man of vast off-court appetites, which caused him to flame out quickly. After his 16-game cameo in 1980, he spent just two full seasons with the Blazers, and part of another with Washington and the Lakers. He played several years in the Philippines, then drifted to leagues in Switzerland, Mexico and Uruguay.

And in 1998 he robbed a New Jersey Texaco station at knifepoint. That netted him 7, not to mention the better part of five years in prison.

Three years ago Jason Quick, a reporter for The Oregonian, found Bates living near New York City, splitting time between the home of a friend and that of his ex-wife. Bates told Quick he had been in drug rehab, that he was jobless, that he was hoping to get his autobiography published.

The working title? Born to Play Basketball.

That appears to be Jeremy Lins story, too. Its one as old as the sport itself.

Gordie Jones is an award-winning journalist who has worked in the Philadelphia market for 28 years. He also co-authored a book about the 76ers' 1982-83 championship team with former Sixers general manager Pat Williams.

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