Jeremy Lin by the Numbers

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New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has mesmerized the sports world. In just five games, the previously anonymous Lin has energized the largest basketball market in the world, jump started a fan base that was recently sulking in the misery of unrealized expectations and brought hope to underrepresented minorities and dream chasers everywhere.

How？

The Knicks have won five consecutive games, while missing two superstars and led by the unlikeliest of heroes: an Asian-American Harvard graduate who feared he would never even receive the opportunity to play in the NBA.

That's right, an unknown, undrafted, unassuming 23-year-old kid who sleeps on his brother's couch during NYK home games has piloted the Knicks within two games of a .500 record, when "Melo" and "STAT," owed approximately $160 million by the Knicks over the next four years, practically shipwrecked the Knicks at 8-15.

To put how spectacular Lin has been into perspective, Lin's Player Efficiency Rating through 14 games is 25.9. If he were eligible for ranking, that statistic would put him behind only LeBron James, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant and ahead of Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose, in terms of PER.

Clearly 14 games and about 17 minutes per game is a small sample size, and it is unlikely for Lin to sustain this output, but for someone who never even received an athletic scholarship, who could barely make an NBA team over the last two seasons, let alone see time on the floor, this achievement can only be described as …

Linsanity.

Below you will find some other figures and numbers related to the New York Knicks rising star, Jeremy Lin:

5: Number of consecutive games the New York Knicks have won since head coach Mike D'Antoni started giving Jeremy Lin substantial playing time.

28: Points Lin scored in his first career NBA start.

99.4: Points per game the New York Knicks have been averaging in their last five games, almost five more than when they had Carmelo Anthony in the lineup.

1988: The year the 23-year-old Lin was born.

17: Lin's jersey number.

109: Number of total points scored by Lin in his first four starts; the highest scoring output by a player in his first four starts in NBA history, according to the Huffington Post.

27.3: Lin's scoring average in his last four games.

99: Percentile Lin belongs to in terms of shooting accuracy between 17-ft. and three-point range, according to Synergy Sports Technology via the Huffington Post.

8.3: Assists per 36 minutes Lin is averaging through 14 games played in the 2011-12 season, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

49.6: Jeremy Lin's field goal percentage for the 2011-12 season.

51.9: Lin's field goal percentage his last year as Harvard's starting point guard, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

100: Lin's Defensive Rating. If eligible, Lin would be ranked among the top 10 point guards in the NBA.