Jeremy Lin is going to New York

The New York Knicks have picked up Jeremy Lin. Houston had to release Lin on Christmas day to make roster space for the signing of center Samuel Dalembert. The Knicks have been hurting at the point guard position. Iman Shumpert could miss four weeks with a knee injury, Baron Davis might still be weeks away because of his bulging back disc and Mike Bibby missed the opener with a sore lower back.

Lin, a Bay Area native and Harvard graduate, will join the Knicks in Oakland when they meet Mark Jackson‘s Golden State Warriors in the first game of a three-game West Coast road trip beginning Wednesday night.

“Yeah we picked up Jeremy Lin off of waivers (as) a backup point (guard) in case,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We’ve always liked him as a player so we’ll see where we go with it. He went to Harvard so he might be the smartest guy we have. But he’s very quick, he defends pretty well and he can really get in the lane and distribute the basketball. We haven’t seen him for a couple of years but when we worked him out we liked him.” Lin will likely be the Knicks third point guard behind Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby, but D’Antoni said he could find some playing time in short order. “If somebody wakes up with a cold he’s playing a lot,” D’Antoni said. “If not, then we’ll see.”

Lin became the first American-born player of Chinese descent to play in the NBA. Before Lin the last Asian-American to play in the NBA was University of Utah guard Wataru Misaka who played in three games with the Knicks during the 1947-48 season.