Linsanity spares U.S. Olympics team

ORLANDO—The world has been on a Jeremy Lin bender. Thankfully, Jerry Colangelo has managed to remain sober.

He likes the kid and all that. But as boss of USA basketball, Colangelo’s first priority is to win a gold medal, not a popularity contest.

Sorry, Linsanity sufferers. London is not calling for Jeremy Lin.

“You don’t go from A to Z in life in anything,” Colangelo said. “You have to pay your dues.”

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Lin may not have gone to Z, but he’s pretty near T or U or V. If People magazine conducted a poll, Lin would probably be the starting point guard for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team.

Repeat after Colangelo:

Not. Gonna. Happen.

He didn’t actually say those words Friday. Colangelo was at All-Star Weekend to unveil Team USA’s pre-Olympic schedule. The NBA’s hottest topic inevitably came up.

Reading between his diplomatic lines, Colangelo is a voice crying in the Lin wilderness. He’s not even worried that Lin might take his basketball skills to Beijing, though the possibility that Lin plays for China in the London Games at least exists.

If that makes Colangelo the Grinch Who Stole Linsanity, he’ll take the rap.

“It’s a great story for the NBA and a great story for him,” Colangelo said. “But one week or two doesn’t make a career.”

The bottom line is that Lin is a good player. But the hype has far exceeded his basketball resume. Colangelo would have said that before Thursday night’s game, when the Heat basically made Lin look like an undrafted free agent from Harvard.

“Players always have to go around the league a couple of times. You get to know them and make adjustments,” Colangelo said. “Let’s talk again after another 20 games, and we’ll see how he’d doing.”

Even if Lin continued to play like Steve Nash circa 2005, which point guard would he replace on Team USA?

Derrick Rose? Chris Paul? Russell Westbrook? Deron Williams?

The second-tier of guard candidates like Rajon Rondo, Eric Gordon, Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings is daunting enough.

“We really have more depth than we’ve ever had,” Colangelo said.

The former Phoenix Suns owner was hired in 2005 to revitalize the disorganized mess USA Basketball had become. He’s big into “equity,” meaning he favors players who’ve been in the program.

Most of the players on the roster—18 of the 20 potential players identified in January—have played in previous Olympics or world championship competitions. The younger ones have been on the “select” team.

“They get a chance to scrimmage the big guys, if you will,” Colangelo said. “We get a chance to know them better, and they get a chance to see how we do things.”

Lin may well get invited to scrimmage the big guys when they open camp this summer. But he’d have to be as stupendous as the most crazed fans believe.

Maybe 34 points, 12 assists and a couple of dunks over LeBron per game would do it. Anyone who saw Heat-Knicks Thursday night knows that notion is beyond Linsanity.

There is a chance Lin could make it London with the Chinese team. The state news agency, Xinhua, has called for him to renounce his U.S. citizenship and play for the good old People’s Republic.

The idea certainly has marketing appeal, but there are complications. A big one: Lin’s parents are from Taiwan, and most Taiwanese don’t consider their island part of China; Lin's maternal grandmother, according to the New York Times, fled mainland China for Taiwan in the 1940s.

Plus, Taiwan, which competes in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei, did not qualify for the London Games.

This would be much simpler if we could revert to 1992, when pros first started playing. The Dream Team was so good it could afford to set aside a slot for a college player. Christian Laettner essentially carried everyone’s luggage around Barcelona.

The world caught up with America, which is why Colangelo was brought in. As good as LeBron, Kobe, etc. are, he knows America can’t turn over a roster spot to the NBA public relations department.

“There are a lot of players who want to play,” Colangelo said. “And they’re paying their dues. No exceptions.”

Sounds like a guy who won’t let anything get between the U.S. and a gold medal.

Not even Linsanity.