Jeremy Lin to Bring Linsanity to Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend

Jeremy Lin is going to bring the Linsanity to the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend at the end of this month in Orlando, Fla.

Jeremy Lin will not be dunking, per se, but he will be participating in the contest by helping his New York Knicks teammate Iman Shumpert perform his dunk in the contest, ESPN.com reports.

Shumpert, a rookie who is only one of four Slam Dunk Contest entrants this year, will have Lin assist him in a way that will be reminiscent of Baron Davis' contribution to the dunk that Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin laid down to win last year's Slam Dunk Contest.

Griffin had his Clippers teammate Baron Davis throw a basketball out of the moonroof of a Kia car so that Griffin could slam the ball through the hoop in the classic dunk.

Though little detail is available about exactly how Jeremy Lin will be assisting Shumpert, it is confirmed, ESPN reports, that he will be doing so, and that the NBA does not intend for Lin himself to dunk. Each of the four Slam Dunk Contest entrants this year will get three dunks, and it is unknown how many of Shumpert's will feature Jeremy Lin's assistance.

The other contestants in the 2012 Sprite Slam Dunck Contest at the All-Star Weekend at the end of this month are Houston Rockets forward Chase Budinger, Indiana Pacers star Paul George and Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams

Despite the fact that we won't be seeing any slams from him at the Slam Dunk Contest this year, Jeremy Lin can throw down a dunk even though he's only 6'3. But he wasn't well-known for it until Feb. 8, when Lin wowed the crowd at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., by cutting between a number of Washington Wizards defenders and slamming down the first dunk of his NBA career.Even Lin's Knicks teammate, center Tyson Chandler, says he didn't know that the 6'3 point guard could dunk until that game.

Though the right-handed dunk wasn't the fliest one you'll ever see from a team that has Carmelo Anthony, Amare' Stoudamire and Chandler, it quickly became the most popular jam since Jan. 30, when Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers posterized the Oklahoma City Thunder's Kendrick Perkins.

On Thursday, the New York Daily News reported that Lin will also be participating in the Haier Shooting Stars competition on All-Star Saturday. But NBA Comissioner David Stern told USA Today that Lin will not be added to the annual Rising Stars game, in which rookie and sophomore players play a game against each other at All-Star Weekend.

Lin, a 6'3, 200-pound point guard has taken the sport by storm, overshadowing his All-Star teammates Carmelo Anthony and Amare' Stoudamire by leading the team to its best streak all year without their help.

Jeremy Lin, who hails from Palo Alto, Calif., was a star in college, when he led Harvard University to its all-time best basketball season in 2009 before graduating and going un-drafted in 2010. He proved himself in the NBA summer league, dominating John Wall in one particularly impressive game, and was then signed by the Golden State Warriors.

He played last year with the Warriors, but during this season's NBA lockout, he ended up without a team. He went to the Houston Rockets for a short while, but was picked up by the Knicks in December.

And now, he is unexpectedly the hottest player in the NBA, and as only the fourth Asian-American ever to play in the league, he has emerged as an icon in that community as well. And Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni only expects him to continue to do well:

He just does everything easy and the rest of the guys around him are playing the way we want to play,D'Antoni told CBS News last week, adding the following about Lin: The things that are real are his vision, which won't change; his speed, which won't change; his knowledge of the game, which won't change. I think it can only get better.