Stream It Or Skip It: ‘38 at the Garden’ on HBO Max, A Loving Look Back At The Magic Of Linsanity

Jeremy Lin’s career statistics aren’t likely to land him in the NBA Hall of Fame, and his time with the New York Knicks passed in a flash–a single season in a journeyman career that saw him play for eight teams over nine seasons in the league. His time in New York will never be forgotten, though–a thrilling flash of success that came to be known as “Linsanity”, peaking with a 38-point game over Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden. 38 at the Garden, a new short documentary on HBO Max, relives this moment and Lin’s undeniable cultural impact.

38 AT THE GARDEN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s hard to describe how exciting Linsanity was in the moment, but it might just be the most electric stretch of regular-season NBA play since Michael Jordan returned from his first retirement. Jeremy Lin, an unheralded, undrafted point guard out of Harvard, already cut by multiple teams, was suddenly lighting up the scoreboard night after night, capturing the imagination of New York City and the league at large. This well-crafted, fun and thoughtful documentary offers insight into Lin’s moment of glory, built largely around interviews with Lin, his Knicks teammates, and a number of other cultural figures.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: There’s no perfect parallel for Jeremy Lin’s story, because there’s hardly been a story like it before, but the whole vibe is similar to that of ESPN’s best 30 For 30 documentaries, in length, tone and polish.

Performance Worth Watching: Obviously, Jeremy Lin is the center of this documentary, offering his first-hand perspective on the experience, but important context is provided by a handful of Asian-American celebrities, including comedian Jenny Yang, journalist Lisa Ling, and ESPN personality Pablo Torre, who illustrate the importance of Lin’s achievement to people from comparable backgrounds.

Memorable Dialogue: “Hold up, hold up. Before we get into any of this, let’s jump back to the beginning,” Lin notes early in the documentary, hot on the heels of a montage of highlights and others praising his remarkable performance that night. “Because there’s no way any of this should have been possible.” Teammate Tyson Chandler offers an inside perspective. “The same way the world was caught by surprise, us on the team were caught by surprise.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: “Small. Passive. Diminutive. Unathletic. Submissive,” comedian Hasan Minhaj notes at one point early in the documentary, listing the stereotypes that Asian-Americans face on a daily basis.”If you are all of those five things, that means you are definitely not brave, courageous, covetable, desirable or a leader.”

“There’s this constant, overwhelming sense of doubt from the outside that tempted me to not even believe in myself,” Lin adds. “That was the biggest obstacle I had to overcome.”

Lin starred in high school, and excelled playing college ball at Harvard, but a starring role in the NBA didn’t seem terribly likely after he went undrafted. The Golden State Warriors signed him, but cut him after a few stints in the NBA’s developmental league; the Houston Rockets did the same. A chance with the New York Knicks saw him sleeping on a teammate’s undersized couch, desperate for a chance to prove himself.

Once he got that chance? It was Madison Square Garden magic.

In the middle of the 2011-12 regular season, Lin suddenly erupted, dropping fall-away jumpers, dunking over All-Stars, and putting up 20-point games. This culminated with a game at Madison Square Garden against the Los Angeles Lakers and future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, one that saw Lin score 38 points in front of a roaring crowd, out-scoring Bryant and leading the Knicks to a 92-85 victory that would cement “Linsanity” in the public consciousness.

The moment is without compare; I lived in New York City at the time, and for two weeks, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Knicks games on in bars, the play-by-play spilling out of every passing cab. It was a moment, and more so for Asian-Americans thrilled to see representation at the highest level of professional basketball.

Lin suffered a meniscus tear in March of that season, causing him to miss the playoffs, and signed a lucrative deal with the Houston Rockets in the offseason. He’d never recapture the form he saw during that thrilling February in New York, but the moment would never be forgotten; 38 at the Garden does a terrific job of capturing it.

Our Call: STREAM IT. There’s never been anything like Linsanity, and even a decade later, it’s a thrill to relive it. 38 at the Garden does the story justice and more, capturing the excitement of an incredible moment in NBA history.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.