"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."

That's what Floyd Mayweather thinks.

For those of you unclear on this month's topic, Jeremy Lin is the basketball sensation sweeping the nation. Well, that's not entirely correct. Jeremy Lin is the basketball sensation sweeping the planet.

And Floyd Mayweather is a professional boxer.

Who knows everything.

About everything.

(Except how to get in the ring with Manny Pacquiao, but that's a story that'll keep.)

Jeremy Lin burst onto the scene a little over two weeks ago, after getting to play less than 60 minutes combined in the New York Knicks' first 23 games of this year's lockout-shortened basketball season. On February 4th, 2012 (a day that will live in Knicks lore forever), Lin went for 25 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists against the New Jersey Nets.

In the Knicks' next game, and Lin's first ever NBA start, Lin went for 28 points and 8 assists against the Utah Jazz.

Then he went for 23 points and 10 assists against the Wizards.

Then he blew up for 38 points and 7 assists against the Lakers.

Then he got 20 points and 8 assists against the Timberwolves.

Then 27 points and 11 assists versus the Raptors.

Then 10 and 13 against the Kings.

A couple of valuable and salient points here....

1) These games were all wins for the Knicks who, before Jeremy Lin came down from Krypton, were the proud owners of an 8-15 record and were in serious danger of not only getting their coach fired but also of winning the decade's-most-disappointing-NBA-team award.

2) Since Lin's arrival, Time Warner Cable in New York and the MSG Network, which broadcasts Knicks games, among others, magically worked out a deal to get the network back on the air after a nasty contract dispute saw Time Warner drop MSG over rights fees it considered onerous and which now, by comparison, probably look to be rock bottom.

3) Also since Lin's arrival, the share price of Madison Square Garden, the publicly traded entity, reached historic highs.

4) Jeremy Lin became the first player in NBA league history to go for at least 20 points and 7 assists in each of his first five career starts.

5) In those first five career starts, Lin scored 136 points combined, the most by any player since the NBA and the ABA merged in 1976.

So, in conclusion... Jeremy Lin is, indeed, "a good player." He may be a great player. We'll need a larger sample to determine that. "All the hype" is not solely because he's Asian. Some of it is, absolutely. But name me one other Asian basketball player currently in the NBA. I'll wait....

As David Aldridge said on NBA.com, "it would not be covered the same way if a black kid did what Jeremy Lin is doing. But it wasn't covered the same way when Tiger Woods started doing what Jack Nicklaus did. That's the whole point."

Nobody has ever done what Jeremy Lin has done to start his career as an NBA starter.

Doesn't matter what color. Black. White. Blue. Purple.

Nobody.

Ever.

So there, Floyd.

After all those wins, Lin and the Knicks did stumble against the Hornets. (Yeah, I was surprised the Hornets still existed, too. I just sort of assumed they winked out of existence when Chris Paul moved to L.A.)

But they bounced back, with authority and legitimacy against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks on Sunday. Lin chipped in with 28 points and 14 assists. That's 56 points he contributed directly to. (More, technically, since a couple of those assists were on three-pointers.)

Lin and the Knicks, along with prodigal son Carmelo Anthony, will prove if this was all a flash in the pan or if they're really as dangerous as New Yorkers everywhere hope they are over the next month or so. Their next eleven games include games on the road against Miami, Boston, Dallas, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Chicago; they get to play New Jersey, Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Portland at home. For those of you keeping score at home, that's 8 teams with winning records, 5 of which are at or near the top of the standings, against only 3 with losing records.

Stay tuned.

R.I.P.

Gary Carter passed away this month, after a fight with cancer that struck out of the blue and showed about as much mercy as Carter did against Calvin Schiraldi and Red Sox nation way back in 1986.

He was an almost tragically nice guy in a Mets' locker room that nobody would've ever confused for nice.

When he went into the Hall of Fame, after too long a wait, mind you, they put him in wearing an Expos cap, a nod to the fact that he did, in fact, spend most of his career north of the border. Carter, who loved his career in New York and remains to this day a vital part of team lore, once said he only wished he could've gone in with a cap that was half-Expos, half-Mets.

Carter was always my favorite player on my favorite team.

He was a catcher and he wore number 8.

Alex can be reached at cuda24@yahoo.com