If there is one thing that Americans love it is the underdog. We love to see the guy or gal that has no conceivable chance of winning overcome all the odds and flourish. The notion has fueled the creative minds in Hollywood for decades.

New York  Knicks fans have been watching their own Hollywood tale unfold in front of them with the sudden and unexpected emergence of the NBA’s latest star—their own version of The Natural–Jeremy Lin.

Unlike Robert Redford’s character in the iconic baseball movie, Lin is not at the end of his career and hasn’t been shot. The background of Lin’s story, while not as dramatic, is still the stuff that movies are made from.

Lin was the man in high school, leading his team to a state championship in his senior year. As captain of the team at Palo Alto High School he averaged an impressive 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.0 steals. Lin was an easy choice for All-State honors and was named the Northern California Division II Player of the Year.

As impressive a resume as the 6-foot 3-inch Taiwanese guard had, he did not get a single scholarship offer. After shopping himself around the Ivy League, Jeremy found a home at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

At Harvard there was nothing that Lin could not do well on a basketball court; he proved that in his junior season (2008-09) when he ranked in the top ten in the Ivy League for just about every meaningful statistical category.

In the end, after four years of college, Jeremy Lin was named a first-team all-conference player twice and racked up an impressive career stat line (1483 points/487 rebounds/406 assists/225 steals) along with earning a 3.1 GPA and a degree in economics.

The 2010 draft came and went, but no one wanted him. At the tryouts he went to Lin said that they only played 1 on1, 2 on 2, or 3-3; not his strength. A few teams were willing to give a look as an undrafted free agent; he went with his hometown team, the Golden State Warriors.

However, that move almost ended up looking like more of a PR stunt than anything else. Lin played little and only scored 76 points on the season. He was waived by the Warriors after one season, and had a short stint with the Houston Rockets before getting cut prior to the start of the 2011-12 season.

New York picked him up on December 27 after Iman Shupert went down to injury. He still wasn’t playing, but at least he was on a roster. On February 4, the team was doing so bad that head coach Mike D’Antoni figured he had nothing to lose by giving Lin a chance; he responded by scoring 25 points, making five rebounds, and having seven assists.

And the rest– as they say– has become history.  We will have to see what Jeremy will do next.

Watch Jeremy Lin’s Linsanity continue in the NBA

Jeremy’s highlights against the Mavs over the weekend.  This guy just keeps on going…