It was announced this morning that Yao Ming’s friend and former teammate Chase Budinger of the Rockets will be one of 4 players to participate in the dunk contest in Orlando the weekend after next.

You may remember that Yao led a chant for Chase to throw down a dunk back in 2010 during a Yao foundation charity basketball games in Taipei, Taiwan. Check that out at the 8:33 mark of the video below. It’s really funny. Interestingly, right before this happened, Jeremy Lin threw down a dunk (at the 8:07 mark).

If you want to see a highlight reel of some of Chase’s best dunks (dating back to even his high school days), check out this video on Rockets.com

Jeremy Lin guided the Knicks to their 7th straight win Wednesday night, dishing out a career high 13 assists to beat the 10-18 Sacramento Kings. It didn’t matter that he scored only 10 points because the Knicks built a big lead (18 points at halftime, 22 after the 3rd quarter) and had 7 players who scored in double figures.

Click here for more photos from the game.

Being the unselfish player he is, Lin doesn’t care. Here’s what he said after only scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting:

“As a point guard, my field goal attempts have been really high and I don’t think that’s necessarily good. I think it’s more of my job to distribute and get people in rhythm.”

This statement shows how intelligent and team-oriented Lin is.

The Knicks should be able to make it 8 in a row when they play the New Orleans Hornets at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, with Carmelo Anthony expected to return from injury for that game. Then the Knicks finally face some decent competition when they play the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday. But that game will be at home as well, and will be televised nationally on ABC at 1:00pm Eastern.

I’m sure you have all heard about it by now, but just in case you haven’t, here’s the video of Jeremy Lin‘s game winner against Toronto Tuesday night.

He led all Knicks in scoring with 27 points (12 in the fourth quarter, and the last 6 points of the game), along with 11 assists to help bring the Knicks back from a double-digit deficit.

There are no words to describe what we’re witnessing here. In the video, listen to the Toronto crowd (20,092), which was a sell-out, and only their second sell-out of the season. It sounds like TWO Madison Square Gardens in there!

Click here for more photos of Lin in the game.

Click here for the game story.

JLin had a great first half Saturday night against the Timberwolves in Minnesota (15 points on 7-of-12 shooting, 4 assists) featuring golden boy point guard Ricky Rubio, but Jeremy had his first sub-par half as a starter when he shot 1-for-12 from the field for 5 points, and had 4 turnovers). Maybe all these minutes Lin has been logging the past 5 games over the past week finally caught up with him.

But Lin was still a hero when he drove hard to the hoop with a few seconds left in a 98-98 ball game, was fouled, and went to the line to hit 1-of-2 free throws. That ended up being the game winner. So even with a bad second half, he still willed his team to a win.

Lin is now 4-0 as a starter, but don’t forget he scored 25 points off the bench (vs. New Jersey on Feb. 4th) in the game before he became a starter.

ESPN had an interesting stat after this game. JLin has scored more points (109) in his first four starts than any player since 1976-77 (the year of the ABA-NBA merger). Behind him are the following (unbelievable some of the names on this list)!:

Allen Iverson – 101
Shaquille O’Neal – 100
Michael Jordan – 99
Bill Ray Bates – 99

Click here for more photos of Jeremy from the game.

After the Knicks beat the Lakers on Friday night, Jeremy Lin said in his post-game news conference the following:

“I talk to Yao after every game. He’s taken me out to eat every time we’re in the same city. He’s obviously a role model and a big brother and mentor to me. We keep in touch all the time.”

See the photos below of Yao and Jeremy together that I personally took back in July of 2010 when they met for the first time during the Yao Foundation Charity Tour stop in Taipei.

He states this at the 3:23 mark in the post-game video below. It’s also interesting at the 5:30 mark when he talks about how great of a player that Jared Jeffries is, who I personally thought had alot to offer when he was with the Rockets, but the Rockets wrote-off for some reason and gave up on him (sound familiar?…Lin, Jeffries, and Steve Novak, who are all playing well for the Knicks now).

Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin meet for the first time before the charity game in Taipei, Taiwan (7/28/10). Check out this video of coverage of Jeremy’s appearance in that charity game and how big of a deal it was in Taiwan, even back then.

Yao poses for a photo with Jeremy Lin and his family.

Jeremy Lin seemed to get more questions from the Taiwan press than Yao Ming, Bill Duffy, or any of the Taiwanese players or coaches combined.

Click here for the complete blog post from when these photos were taken back in July of 2010.

If you missed Friday night’s game, you missed an instant classic. Luckily, here’s a video of tonight’s highlights.

All the cheering and screaming at Madison Square Garden you hear in this video could have been happening at Toyota Center. As well as national TV games, increased attention in the U.S., Asia, and around the world.

And here’s ESPN coverage and analysis from Magic Johnson, Jon Barry, Michael Wilbon, and Chris Broussard after the game:

How bad do the Rockets look for cutting him and keeping Jonny Flynn instead? And how sick must Daryl Morey be feeling after seeing how Lin has performed this week? This is one of those occasions where stats and being a lottery pick (Flynn was the 6th pick in the draft) was valued more important than heart, desire and work ethic of an undrafted free agent…which is so odd since the Rockets are known for valuing that in their players past and present (Scola, Lowry, Chuck Hayes, Yao, etc). We would love to get your comments below about this.

Click here for more photos of JLin in tonight’s game (thanks to Raymond for posting them in the forum).

The following was reported by the AP earlier today. It looks like JLin is getting close to reaching Yao Ming status in China.

NEW YORK (AP)—Jeremy Lin is making the Knicks must-see TV in Asia.

MSG said its ratings are up 36 percent over its season average in the two games since Lin moved into the starting lineup on Monday.

Wednesday night was another incredible night for Jeremy Lin, who scored 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and had 10 assists on the road to help the Knicks beat the Wizards.

Highlights in the video below include:

– Beautiful drives to the rim throughout the game
– 2:38 – a gorgeous fadeaway bank shot high off the glass for a bucket
– 3:07 – a monster throw-down!
– Lots of cheering from the Washington crowd, many being Asian-Americans who came out to be part of Lin-sanity, just like YaoMania 10 years ago! Listen to them!
– On a couple of plays, former Rocket and 1st round draft pick Steve Novak scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting (5-of-9 from 3-point land).

Click here for more photos from the game, including a bad cut on Lin’s chin.

In case you hadn’t heard, Jeremy Lin had a breakout game Saturday night for the Knicks against the New Jersey Nets, scoring 25 points in an epic game that he said afterwards rated as the top game of his career.

THEN LIN DID IT AGAIN TONIGHT. In his first career start, Lin scored 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting to lead the team in scoring against the Jazz in another win, while also and dishing 8 dimes against the Jazz in another win. See photos of JLin from the game here, and the video highlights below:

The Knicks needed Lin since Amare Stoudemire didn’t play because of the death of his older brother, Carmelo Anthony had to leave the game because of a pulled groin, and Baron Davis‘ comeback has been slowed by an infected elbow.

Lin played almost the entire game (45 minutes) and obviously was fatigued as evidenced by his 8 turnovers. Coach Mike D’antoni, when asked if Lin got tired because he had to play him extended minutes because of the other players who were out, he replied, “Yeah, I’m riding him like friggin’ Secretariat.”

In case you haven’t seen it, below is an amazing video of Lin’s points and assists from Saturday’s game. You gotta love how his teammates react from the bench when Lin is blowing up.

And here is JLin’s post-game news conference after the Nets game:

Obviously, the Knicks are playing much better with Lin leading the team, penetrating into the lane, scoring, or kicking out to the open man. You can bet Lin will be playing lots of minutes from here on out.

With Lin proving he’s for real, I wonder how the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets feel about having released Lin earlier this season? Granted, both teams were deep at the point guard position, whereas the Knicks aren’t. And the Rockets apparently wanted to keep him, but they signed Samuel Dalembert instead, who has been a great acquisition for them. But did they really have to keep Jonny Flynn, who has done nothing for them this season?

What’s also odd is that other former Rockets now with the Knicks showed they can play well, too. Steve Novak scored 19 points (5-of-8 3-pointers) in just 19 minutes, and Jared Jeffries scored 13 and grabbed 8 boards against a larger front line.

You probably already knew that the Rockets had to waive Jeremy Lin earlier this week to make room for the signing of Samuel Dalembert. And you might have heard the New York Knicks snapped Lin right up. Here’s an article that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times about Lin’s chances to stick with the Knicks.

The Knicks’ other point guards, Mike Bibby, is old. Toney Douglas is still young and raw. And Baron Davis is going to be out for several more weeks while his back heals. So Lin has a chance to prove himself over the next few weeks more than he would have had with the Rockets, playing behind Kyle Lowry, Goran Dragic, and Jonny Flynn.

Good luck, Jeremy. We’ll be watching.