JEREMY LIN - CUT THROAT

Doesn't matter, though. The world will always have the past 10 days, and Diepenbrock will always have one particular moment. It happened in the Knicks-Lakers game, early, when Lin and Kobe Bryant were running downcourt together, trailing the play, neither part of the action.

Kobe reached out and put his hand on Lin, not a shove but not a tap, either. More than anything, a message. You know, a pecking-order thing.

Diepenbrock's voice starts to rise and accelerate as he talks about what came next.

"Jeremy swiped his hand away," he says. "It was like, 'Get the [bleep] away from me.' And that moment, man -- that was Jeremy. He's a nice guy, but he's cut-throat."

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There was no sign that THIS was coming, but there were signs of, well … something. Lin displayed a lot more athleticism than is typical of a fringe prospect, and it permeated his stat sheet at every level: high rates of steals and free throw attempts, and high rates of blocks and rebounds for a player of his size. Those are the four strongest "indicator" stats for athleticism, and he had check boxes in all of them.