In a quirk of professional sports, NBA nickname-sakes Linsanity and Vinsanity wound up playing for the same team this season, namely the Atlanta Hawks.
Undrafted out of Harvard, journeyman point guard Jeremy Lin had an headline-making ascendancy, that led to his Linsanity moniker, with the New York Knicks in February 2012. He leveraged that performance to a lucrative three-year, free-agent contract with the Houston Rockets. The oft-injured Lin was subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, and later landed with the Charlotte Hornets before signing a three-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets in July 2016. He missed most of the 2017 season because of a knee injury, and in July 2018, the Nets traded him to Atlanta.
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Future Hall of Famer Vince Carter, a.k.a. Vinsanity, still active in the NBA at age 41, reached a career 25,000-point milestone on Wednesday night in his first season with the Hawks. The Olympic Gold Medalist small forward is an eight-time NBA All-Star and Rookie of the Year who broke in with the Toronto Raptors after the Golden State Warriors traded him to the Canadian franchise in the first round of the 1998 NBA draft. After seven-plus seasons, the Raptors traded him to the-then New Jersey Nets in December 2004. The Nets traded him to the Orlando Magic in June 2009. Carter subsequently played for the Phoenix Suns, the Dallas Mavericks, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Sacramento Kings, before signing with Atlanta in August 2018. He is a 17.6 points per game scorer over his long career.
Stop the Insanity?
With the Hawks mired in last place in the NBA’s Southeast division with an abysmal 3-16 record going into tonight’s home game at the Sate Farm Arena against the Charlotte Hornets, trade rumors are circulating around Jeremy Lin. It wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility that a squad seemingly going nowhere this season would also consider moving a player of Vince Carter’s stature to a team in the playoff hunt.
