Marketing potential

Given his chance, Lin seized the NBA spotlight with both hands, and has inspired the Knicks with a string of stunning performances.

A fan of New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin holds a sign during the warm-up before the Knicks NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors in Toronto, Feb 14, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

"You have to have luck in life ... he had an opportunity and took advantage of it," said D'Antoni. "There are a lot of NBA players who don't make it. Sometimes you get lucky.

"It's a great story, so enjoy it, hopefully it will last."

As the first ripples of "Linsanity" hit Asia, marketing men have rubbed their hands with glee as they contemplate a candidate to fill the very large shoes left by last year's retirement of Yao Ming.

But nowhere has the fascination been greater than New York, where Lin's No 17 jersey is the NBA's top seller and shares of Madison Square Garden Co, owner of the Knicks, have shot to record highs.

Some experts say Lin has the potential to be a bigger marketing force than any current athlete, provided 'Linsanity' does not prove to be a passing fad.

"He is Tiger Woods before the scandal, I think he has everything going for him," Ronn Torossian, chief executive of 5W Public Relations, told Reuters. "If he can continue to deliver on the court his possibilities off the court are limitless.

"I don't think he needs to put up MVP numbers but I do think when you look at marketing greatness over the last few years, whether it is David Beckham, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, let's not forget they were all winners.

"Before anything else he has to be a winner. If he is, I can't tell you if we have ever seen anything like this."

'It's miracle'

Certainly Raptors fans are not accustomed to seeing anything like it in Toronto, where such lavish attention is reserved for the NBA's elite.

The Raptors have fielded more media interest than for any other regular season game and Tuesday's contest marked just the second sellout of the season.

Coaches, teammates, fans and even Lin himself are at a loss to explain the sequence of events that took him from anonymity to one of the headline acts of the NBA.

Opposing defenses will be more interested in getting acquainted with Lin and searching for a cure for 'Linsanity.'

"I've been able to get away with some stuff but defenses are going to start locking in so I'm going to have to improve," said Lin, who averaged 26.8 points, 8 assists and 4.2 rebounds in his first five games. "If you look back at my story ... there are a lot of things that had to happen that I just couldn't control.

"I think it's a miracle because obviously I don't think anybody expected this to happen the way it happened."