The Delivery Guy Who Saw Jeremy Lin Coming

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FEBRUARY 16, 2012

The Delivery Guy Who Saw Jeremy Lin Coming

By JASON GAY

Joe Kline for The Wall Street Journal

FedEx Ground delivery-truck driver Ed Weiland organizes packages in the back of his truck in Bend, Ore.

The morning after Jeremy Lin sank a thrilling, last-second three-pointer that lifted the New York Knicks over the Toronto Raptors and gave "Linsanity" its latest, rapturous chapter, the mysterious basketball oracle who saw it coming almost two years ago woke up in Bend, Ore., and blended himself a healthy green shake: celery, spinach, kale, orange juice. He put on his uniform, packed some trail mix for the road and pulled on his winter hat. Then he went off to his day job: driving a FedEx Ground delivery truck. In May 2010, an unsung numbers hobbyist named Ed Weiland wrote a long-term forecast of Jeremy Lin for the basketball website Hoops Analyst. At the time, Lin was a lightly regarded, semi-known point guard who had completed his final season at Harvard. But Weiland saw NBA material. He emphasized how well Lin played in three nonconference games against big schools: Connecticut, Boston College and Georgetown. He noted how Lin's performance in two unsexy statistical categories—two-point fieldgoal percentage (a barometer of inside scoring ability) and RSB40 (rebounds, steals and Page 1 of 4


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