A year ago you had probably never heard the names Jeremy Lin or Timothy Dalrymple.

Today, you?ve probably heard of Jeremy Lin: he?s the Harvard-educated Asian-American and undrafted NBA player who, after quiet beginnings in the league, is becoming renowned as the Tim Tebow of the NBA, leading the New York Knicks to a win streak. The 6?3? point guard is the only American in the NBA to ever be of Chinese or Taiwanese heritage. He grew up in Palo Alto, presiding over .970 seasons in high school, where he also earned an incredible 4.2 GPA.

If Timothy Dalrymple is still a stranger, he?s a staff writer for the religious information website Patheos, having a comparably impressive background in advanced (religious) academics at Stanford, Princeton and Harvard. But his star too may rise with Lin?s, as Dalrymple will be partnering with the Hachette Book Group to author Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity, a new book promising to ?chronicle Lin?s high school, college and early career in the NBA, while highlighting the media explosion ignited by his success the past two-plus weeks as a starter with the Knicks.?

And USA Today runs a story today about the unlikely basketball stud, paying special attention to the immense interest in Lin piqued overseas in Taiwan, where his parents lived prior to their journey to America:
Noting an upsurge in basketball interest ? both in watching and playing ? Mayor Eric Chu of the suburban cluster of Xinbei City near Taipei ordered officials to replenish missing nets at community and school basketball courts, and to ensure that night lighting at outdoor facilities was working properly.

Tuesday morning 4,000 Xinbei high school students were allowed time off from classes to see a televised broadcast of the Knicks' loss to the New Jersey Nets. "The students pleaded and I agreed to do this on an experimental basis," said principal Wang Chi-kuang, as his students jumped up and down and clapped red noisemakers to cheer their hero on.

On the day that Ma spoke, all four Taiwanese morning newspapers ran full color front page photographs of Lin from Sunday's victory against the Dallas Mavericks, while TV news stations aired endless commentaries on his exploits. Taiwanese media refer to him simply as the "Hao" kid, a play on words that uses his second Chinese name, which means both "good" and "heroic."

See the current Jeremy Lin titles here

Originally posted at Forthcoming Jeremy Lin book to be called 'Linsanity'