Jeremy Lin launches NBA "Linsanity" with meteoric rise with Knicks

His university classmates may be thriving in law school, at brokerage houses and on the early rungs up the corporate ladder, but Jeremy Lin is blazing a trail as the sudden savior of the New York Knicks.

The point guard from Harvard, an elite college better known as a springboard to the presidency than to basketball success, has galvanized a struggling Knicks team and launched a craze dubbed "Linsanity" by New York's tabloids.

The 23-year-old Lin wrote yet another chapter in his incredible saga by pouring in 38 points Friday to send a packed Madison Square Garden crowd into rapturous delight with a 92-85 victory over Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers for New York's fourth straight win.

Lin, the first Taiwanese-American to play in the NBA, rose from obscurity to sublime winner by averaging 25.3 points and 8.3 assists in three victories that captivated the city and Asian-Americans across the United States.

He topped even that spectacular debut on the NBA's big stage by outdueling five-time NBA champion Bryant as the Garden fans, some wearing Lin masks, chanted "MVP, MVP" while watching the point guard carve up the Lakers with his pinpoint passing and confident drives to the hoop.

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Undrafted and cut by two other teams this season before signing with the Knicks, Lin got his chance because of injuries and the struggling form of the Knicks, who were 8-15 before he took charge on the floor in the absence of their two top scorers, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire.

Lin admitted he was overwhelmed by all the attention.

"Things are changing so much and everyone wants to talk to me and my family, and we're very low-key people and private people so sometimes it's a little tough," the 23-year-old told reporters after practicing Friday ahead of the Lakers game.

Success has come so quickly to the NBA's latest rage, whose exploits have been called "Linsane," "Lincredible" and the victory skein he has directed a "Lin-ing Streak," that he does not yet have his own apartment, sleeping on the sofa of his brother, a graduate dental student at New York University.

"I didn't know that you could turn 'Lin' into so many things because we've never done it before," he joked. "Me and my family were just laughing last night because I guess we underestimated how creative everybody could be."

Basketball experts have underestimated how talented Lin is.

The 6 ft 3in (1.91m) Lin was not recruited by any of the major U.S. college basketball powers despite leading Palo Alto High School (California) to a 33-1 record and the state championship.

He was twice named to the all-Ivy League team but went undrafted in 2010 by NBA teams.

"I've loved basketball ever since I was young," Lin said after a question in Chinese from an NBA China TV reporter. "That's all I really wanted to do was play basketball. That was the path. I just wanted to play as long as I could."