HOUSTON - For 12 days in December, Houston coach Kevin McHale kept thinking that the player the Rockets had claimed off waivers was an extremely nice kid who played hard and was a pleasure to be around - right up until McHale released him Dec. 24, two days before the start of the season.
That kid was New York Knicks point guard sensation Jeremy Lin.
"Oh, I thought he'd be an all-star," McHale joked Wednesday. "Did I see all of this? No. If I did we would have cut half of our team.
"But he's just a wonderful kid," McHale continued. "In our situation we had three point guards under contact and a 10-day training camp, and we were trying to figure out who in the hell we were going to play on Dec. 26.
"Jeremy didn't get nearly enough looks. But when he stepped in there everybody on our staff said, 'Man, that kid gets after it.' And 'Man, that kid is really a nice kid.'
"The thing is, for a young person you could really see how grounded he was. And then I didn't get where all his beliefs were coming from until I later heard the Jeremy Lin story, and then I said, 'No wonder I like this kid so much.' "
Although the Sixers go into the all-star break leading the Atlantic Division, coach Doug Collins said that now is undeniably a good time for a breather.
"If somebody asked if we would be happy with our record and leading the Atlantic Division at the break, the answer would be yes," Collins said. "But when you have lost some games it's the taste in your mouth that you're feeling right now. I think our guys do need a chance to get away and refresh themselves."
Going into Wednesday's game the Sixers had dropped six of their last eight games.
All-star Andre Iguodala has partnered his Andre Iguodala Youth Foundation with the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help in an effort to send thousands of educational textbooks to schools in sub-Saharan Africa and, in the process, give a lucky fan a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando and all the all-star festivities.
IFESH was founded by the late Rev. Leon Sullivan, the one-time pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia and the founder of Opportunities Industrialization Centers.
Tickets and details for how to enter the raffle are available at: http://www.celebritiesforcharity.org/raffle/andre-iguodalas-all-star-game-raffle
