体坛英语新闻：NBA point guard Lin becomes media darling in Taiwan after team's seven straight win

TAIPEI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- New York Knicks' point guard Jeremy Lin rocketed to rock star status and has become a media darling in Taiwan, where the parents of the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese descent grew up.

Local media celebrated the victory of the latest win of Lin on Wednesday with much fanfare. Lin handed out a career-best 13 assists in a 26-minute play after his team routed the Sacramento Kings 100-85 to secure their seventh successive victory.

TV stations repeated over and over again video clips of his top ten goals and caputured shots showing female fans holding banners of "marrying me" on the sideline of the courts.

The success of Lin, who stands at 6 feet 3 inches, even propelled his grandmother to a newsmaker status, with big smiles and recalling stories about his eating habits in childhood.

Local people were all enthusiastic about his success. In one particular case, Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou was seen on TV showing his support by blinks and thumb-up and when responding to reporter's question regarding the 23-years-old's NBA success.

While speculating the business opportunities and buzzwords created after Lin's success, media also called Lin a basketball cinderalla, referring to his early gloomy years of basketball career.

People made fun of him when he sought his basketfall career in Harvard, Lin recalled when accepting interviews aired by local TV channels.

Lin's stunning success with the Knicks over the last week and a half has also became a sensation on the Internet, with millions of microblog messages talking about him in recent days.

Lin scored 136 points in his first five starts, most by any NBA player since the NBA merged with the ABA in 1976.