The biggest sports story of the past week has been JEREMY LIN . . . In case you have been living under a rock, he’s the Asian-American basketball player on the New York Knicks who came out of NOWHERE to put up superstar stats and lead the Knicks to seven straight wins.

And really, NO ONE saw Lin performing like THIS.  He went to Harvard for brains, not on a basketball scholarship.  He was cut by two NBA teams and played in the developmental league.  He only got to play for the Knicks because of injuries.

But if ONE GUY can claim he saw Lin coming, it’s a 51-year-old FedEx driver in Bend, Oregon named Ed Weiland.

Ed is an amateur basketball scout, and in May of 2010, he wrote a statistical and performance analysis of Lin for a website called Hoops Analyst.

In his analysis, he saw that Lin actually played better when Harvard was against big schools and better competition like Connecticut, Boston College, and Georgetown.

And he noticed Lin’s performance in a few underrated statistical categories . . . like two-point scoring percentage . . . resembled NBA stars like ALLEN IVERSON.

And at the end of the report, he wrote, quote, “Jeremy Lin is a good enough player to start in the NBA and possibly star.”

He may be the ONLY person in the world who thought that back in 2010.  LIN HIMSELF might not have even realized it.  But now, his report has absolutely come true.

I’m not sure why you’d try to make Starbucks MORE expensive, but this guy did it.  22-year-old Logan Warren of Nacogdoches, Texas decided to figure out a combination for the most expensive drink POSSIBLE at Starbucks.  Here’s what he got:

A Java Chip Frappuccino for $4.75 in a 31-ounce Trenta cup.

16 shots of espresso for $12 and a shot of soy milk for 60 cents.

A scoop of banana puree for $1, strawberry puree for 60 cents, protein powder for 50 cents, and Matcha powder for 75 centsPlus caramel flavoring for 50 cents, vanilla beans for 50 cents, and a caramel and mocha drizzle for 60 cents.

Total cost?  $23.60, not including the tip he gave the baristas for taking 20 MINUTES to make the drink.  Logan actually didn’t even pay for it . . . because he had a coupon for a free birthday drink.

He says the taste was, quote, “Tolerable but not good.  Imagine a coffee-based health food smoothie.”  It also has 1,400 milligrams of caffeine . . . that’s SO much that if you drank the whole thing, you’d probably end up in the hospital.

 

Kim and Britney were discussing the new austerity legislation in Greece and its ramifications for the European Union.  I kid, they just grunted.

 

Rabid Major League Baseball fans are a dying breed . . . so you’re not going to see many people who take their love of baseball THIS far. 

29-year-old Benjamin Christensen of Eugene, Oregon has tattoos of ALL 30 Major League Baseball MASCOTS.

They’re in two huge clusters:  The American League mascots take up the right side of his upper body and the National League mascots are on his left side.  He’s spent $3,500 on the tattoos so far, with more work and coloring to come.   No immediate sign of touching a woman in a consentual manner in sight.

 

 

Will the original GUNS N’ ROSES reunite and perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in April? No one knows.

But Keyboardist DIZZY REED says it COULD happen. He tells Billboard.com, quote, “I know that all the original band is going to be there. [But] I don’t know exactly what’s going to go down.

“It’s one of those things I’m sure will all come together and be really cool.”

Dizzy is still a member of Guns, but he isn’t sure what AXL ROSE is thinking. He says, quote, “Honestly, we haven’t spoken about it. I don’t know when or why or how to bring it up . . . but I’m sure we’ll have to at some point.”

By the way, Dizzy wasn’t an original member of Guns. He came aboard in 1990 . . . shortly after MATT SORUM was brought in to replace STEVEN ADLER, who was fired for doing WAY too many drugs.

In addition to Axl and Steven, the original lineup had: Guitarists SLASH and IZZY STRADLIN, plus MY HOMIE bassist DUFF MCKAGAN.

The Rock Hall has yet to publicly announce which members are being inducted. Aside from the original lineup . . . and maybe Dizzy and Matt Sorum . . . the only other person with a realistic shot to get in is guitarist GILBY CLARKE, who replaced Stradlin in 1991.

I’m assuming that, yes, if you heard there’s a tree that has a knot that looks remarkably similar to E.T. you’d want to see it.  I have a photo of that tree from Chelmsford, Essex, England.  The locals call it “E. Tree.”