Taiwanese-American guard Jeremy Lin and coach Mike D'Antoni talked ahead of the New York Knicks matchup with the Toronto Raptors on Asian Heritage Night at the Air Canada Centre.
Lin is likely to be a huge draw in Toronto, where Chinese-origin residents make up more than 11 per cent of the population.
The Knicks' floor leader has already had a huge impact upon NBA fans in China, where he has become the country's most popular player since Yao Ming.
Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni is singing Lin’s praises.
"He's the real deal, you don't do this, you may do it for one game, two games. Now the real deal meaning what, he's an NBA player. Whether he's the level of these other guys, we'll see.
Some people have to do it for five or six years before they get it up to that level. He's not there, he just started. But, can he play in the NBA? Yeah, of course, he's got all the tools, he's playing really well. That's not a fluke how he's playing. Now we'll see his going on, what level he arrives at,” D’Antoni says.
However Lin says his raise to fame is thanks to a miracle.
"I think it's a miracle from God is the way I would describe it, just because obviously I don't think anyone expected this to happen the way it happened.
But, you know, again it's a credit to the coaching staff, the team and everyone just, our whole team right now buying into what we think is the right way to play. And we're winning a few games so we want to keep that up," Lin says.
"I would say it's a miracle just because anytime something like this happens there's a lot more, a lot of stuff has to be put into place and a lot of it is out of my control. If you look back at my story, it doesn't matter where you look, but God's fingerprints are all over the place, where there's been a lot of things that had to happen that, you know, I just couldn't control.
And you could try to call it a coincidence but at the end of the day there's 20, 30 things, when you combine them all that had to happen at the right time in order for me to be here. And so, that's why I call it a miracle," he says.
Watch the video to see Lin’s comments.
SNTV