On what planet did Jeremy Lin ever “own” Kobe Bryant?

NY Post

I keep hearing this narrative that when the Knicks played the Lakers on February 10^th, this year, that Jeremy Lin owned Kobe Bryant. Jeremy Lin scored 38 points and dished out 7 assists that game and played out of his mind, but who honestly thought Jeremy Lin owned Kobe that game?

Yet I’ve heard this a million times, “How can you doubt Lin when he owned Kobe like that?” It must be infuriating for any Kobe or Lakers fan that watched the game and saw that Kobe basically didn’t guard Jeremy Lin that game and that when he did, Lin didn’t score any points. Sure, Lin had a better game than Kobe that one night but how does that mean he owned him?

We love to paint sports out to be 1 on 1 affairs but that's just very rarely the case. The Knicks-Lakers game that night can be explained more as Derek Fisher and Steve Blake trying to guard Jeremy Lin and that explains the 38 points a lot more than, “Lin owned Kobe.” I don’t even really like Kobe Bryant very much, I respect his ability and tenaciousness, but I definitely don't jump to his defense very often. That said, if you want to suggest Lin is for real because he put up 38 that game it’s a totally fair argument, but I don't see how Kobe had much to do with any of that.

Google Images
Kobe scored on this play. 

Jeremy Lin's 38 points are more explained by that he did it against mediocre defenders and lazy interior defense. (Cough…Bynum…Gasol) He’s definitely a capable basketball player but in the NBA there is going to be a lot of lazy/mediocre defense in the regular season. Lin torched these defenses that were tired from an absolutely brutal schedule, all while he was fresh from hardly playing all year. I’m not trying to take anything away from him but that’s just the reality of the situation.

I like Jeremy Lin and I don’t want this article to be about him not coming back to the Knicks, but it’s just amazing how we misremember moments in sports. I do not remember that time Lin owned Kobe because that simply never happened. I do remember that time Derek Fisher looked foolish trying to guard him by bullying him and how Steve Blake just can't guard anybody. I saw Mike Brown on the bench screaming at his interior defenders for being lazy with their rotations and letting Lin get to the line way too frequently. I saw the basketball that was happening that night and not the Lin vs. Kobe narrative apparently a lot of other people saw. 

Again, Jeremy Lin scored 0 points while Kobe was guarding him. 0.