Greivis Vásquez wants to take responsibility and be the leader of Venezuela’s basketball team when his country hosts the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The 25-year-old guard, who plays for the New Orleans Hornets, says the aim is not only to claim one of three qualifying places for the Summer Games in London but to also promote the sport in his homeland.

“Personally, I think I should be the leader and the objective is to qualify,” Vásquez said. “I’ve had a chance to speak with some of my teammates in the Venezuela national team and with them, I share the same sentiment.”

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Rookie guard Ricky Rubio could barely contain on the bench in the Minnesota Timberwolves win over the Utah Jazz last night.

Rubio smiled big and celebrated as fellow rookie Derrick Williams hit a tough layup and was fouled with 56.7 seconds remaining in the game. Check out Ricky Rubio’s cute, celebratory dance after Williams’ three-point play:

OLE OLE OLE OLE! Luke Ridnour hit a runner in the lane as time expired to give Minnesota a 100-98 win over the Jazz. Thanks to the Hoop Doctors for the .gif.

It’s hard to believe that it hasn’t even been three weeks since an virtually-unknown Jeremy Lin came off the bench against the New Jersey Nets and put up 25 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds.

Beginning with that game, the Knicks have gone 9-2. And in those 11 games Lin has become the focal point of the Knicks and a media darling.

Next up is the Miami Heat and Lin will be tested again. This time the challenge comes from Lebron James and Dwyane Wade.

Last night against the Hawks, it was fellow up-and-coming point guard Jeff Teague, before that, it was Deron Williams, the Dallas Mavericks, Tyreke Evans, Jose Calderon, Ricky Rubio and so on.

Every game there’s seems to be a new challenge and storyline for Jeremy Lin.

And after every game, whether it’s a win or loss, Linsanity or not, Jeremy Lin will get better. As Lin experiences new defenses designed to slow him down — he’ll learn from it. As he gets to know his teammates better — Jeremy Lin will can only improve.

Why? Because he’s just 23 years old.

I’ve read Jeremy Lin articles ad nauseum over the last few weeks and I am surprised to not have read any article that has mentioned this very-important fact for gauging Lin’s long-term prospects. Sadly, I ran across more articles about Lin sleeping on a couch (Lin has since upgraded to the W Hotel).

The naysayers (all four of you out there), like to point out that it’s only a few weeks and most of the wins are against subpar teams – true enough, but that’s the glass-half-empty perspective.

In those 11 games, Lin has averaged 23.9 points on 50% from the field, 9.2 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 steals. Not exactly pedestrian numbers.

(We’ll get to the turnovers in a moment)

The kicker? Jeremy Lin, all 23 years old of him, has a lot of games ahead of him. Not just this shortened-season, but in the rest of his career.

Given, Linsanity is about the here and now, but writers haven’t truly delved into the future of Jeremy Lin, instead they’ve focused on the present or the upcoming games. Rare is the article that talks about what Jeremy Lin will look like past the NBA All-Star Weekend coming up.

So if you’re one of these writers, analysts or sportscaster and would like to discuss Jeremy Lin’s future, please don’t forget to include one undeniable, important fact that all but guarantees that Jeremy Lin gets better – his age.

I can’t say it enough. Jeremy Lin is 23 years old.

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Check out “The Garden Transformed: Year One on MSG” which chronicles the Garden as it gets a facelift.

The Madison Square Garden (MSG) Network is taking sports fans behind the scenes of the first historic phase of a three-year transformation of Madison Square Garden in a new show called “The Garden Transformed: Year One.” The five-part series, voiced-over by actor Billy Crudup, will debut following a Knicks or Rangers game.

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Jeremy Lin was featured in a video interview with Spero Dedes on New York’s MSG channel on Friday night.

In the interview, titled “Jeremy Lin: To the Point”, Dede talks to Lin about the last two weeks of Linsanity, faith, teamwork, sleeping on Landry Field’s couch, struggles with basketball, and what the future will bring.

Here’s the interview:

Edit: The sound is terrible in the second part of the above video, so to see all of Jeremy Lin’s “To the Point” interview, go to MSG.com.

It was only a few short years ago that the denizens of Madison Square Garden serenaded Kobe Bryant, an outsider, with chants of MVP.

So when Jeremy Lin bested Bryant in a game of shot-for-shot, receiving the crowd’s adulation, the Garden belonged to the New York Knicks again. And Jeremy Lin belonged to New York.

For millions of Asian-Americans, this is the first time seeing one of their own breakthrough on the basketball court. Someone that looks like them, shares their cultural experiences and tribulations. The story of Jeremy Lin belongs to them.

Then came Valentine’s day. On an otherwise nondescript Tuesday night in Toronto it was Lin, like Bryant in New York, playing the outsider. Dribbling the clock down though its waning seconds, the crowd stood with a collective energy. Make or miss, it would be a moment of jubilation–but the excitement, the joy, came in not knowing what would happen next.

With but a few precious seconds Lin rose into his shooting motion, the ball hung in the air, silencing the crowd for a moment. As it settled into the net the home crowd roared, cheering on the outsider. The moment was created by Lin, but it belonged to everyone.

That’s just it with Lin. Part of our human condition is the desire to be a part of something bigger. It’s why so many gravitate towards sports in the first place, fans affixing the pronoun ‘we’ when referencing their favorite teams. But no connection strikes deeper than when one of our own reaches great heights. It’s almost as if we can project ourselves in their place.

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Oh, the Linsanity.

Jeremy Lin continues to raise the bar on his already amazing rags-to-riches story. Six games in and he continues to top himself.

We’ve watched Lin soar as some have second-guessed his rise with poor arguments, belittled his very real accomplishments,  or tried to bring him down with insidious racist insult masked as a (bad) joke.