The Jeremy Lin Phenomenon Hits The Midwest (Video)

The Jeremy Lin traveling road show made its way to Minneapolis on Saturday night, for a battle with the Minnesota Timberwolves and a match up with Wolves rookie phenom Ricky Rubio.

In a very competitive game, Lin and his teammates rallied to beat the Wolves 100-98, with Lin hitting the go-ahead foul shot, while totaling 20 points and 8 assists in the contest.     

Two hours before the game, per the above iFollowSports.com original video, a freezing Lin was seen entering Target Center, amid a group of screaming fans. Lin looked cold and maybe a bit uncomfortable with his sudden level of fame, on this even colder than normal Minnesota day.

In basketball terms, the New York Knicks point guard has literally gone from rags to riches.

Lin, who was a complete unknown around the country, just two short weeks ago, has now exploded in popularity due to his great play and winning ways. With both Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire out, Lin has led the Knicks to five straight wins, while posting at least 20 points and 7 assists in each of his four starts.

For the moment, Lin has invigorated a Knicks fan-base that had previously been down in the dumps as a result of a very disappointing season.

Amazingly, television ratings for Knicks games on the MSG network are up a whopping 36 percent since Lin's run of success began, while visits to the Knicks official website jumped by 550 percent in the last week.

The number of people following Lin's Twitter page is 20 times greater than it was two weeks ago, with his page on the Chinese equivalent to Twitter boasting of nearly 900,000 followers at the present time.

Observers are calling Lin the Tim Tebow of the NBA.

Lin, who is of Taiwanese ancestry, spent the vast majority of his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was undrafted out of Harvard, where he averaged 29 points per game.

Lin had brief stints with his hometown Warriors and the Houston Rockets, before getting picked up by the Knicks in late December.

As has been widely reported, because of his uncertain future, Lin has been sleeping on his brother's Chinatown (NYC) couch, while also getting some rest on the sofa of Knicks teammate Landry Fields.

It is also being reported that Lin was nearly cut by the Knicks, just before his remarkable streak began.

In a million years, Hollywood could not have created a more unbelievable narrative.

Tuesday night, the Jeremy Lin world tour makes its way north of the border, for a game with the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.