Gather round children and let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, many days ago, there was a point guard by the name of Jeremy Lin.  Now, Jeremy wasn’t your average point guard. He had the quickness to drive past the most agile of defenders, the vision to see passes most other guards couldn’t and enough leadership to make Tim Tebow himself envious — if envy wasn’t one of the seven deadly sins, that is. Unfortunately for Jeremy, no one seemed to notice his potential. Everywhere he went, people kept telling him he wasn’t good enough.

Coming out of high school, he didn’t receive any athletic scholarships, but he persevered and joined the team at a small school in Massachusetts called Harvard. While at Harvard, all he did was make the All-Ivy League First Team in his junior and senior seasons. Despite his collegiate success, no NBA team wanted to take a chance on the 6’ 3” guard from Palo Alto and he went undrafted.

After being cut from two teams, including his childhood favorite Golden State Warriors, Lin finally latched on to the New York Knicks. Even after the Knicks started the season poorly, head coach Mike D’Antoni refused to give Lin much playing time, even demoting him to the Development League — the NBA’s version of the minor leagues.

Then, as if by divine intervention, things finally began falling into place for the hero of our story. Maligned by injuries, the Knicks roster was depleted heading into a Feb. 4 matchup with the New Jersey Nets. With no one else to play, D’Antoni handed the keys to the Knicks engine to Lin, and “the little point guard that could” finally was able to show the world what he could do.

Jeremy almost single-handedly led the Knicks to victory that day; and the rest, as they say, is Lin-istory.

Look, I know, it’s one of those stories, which if you didn’t already know to be true, you would say it was too cheesy even for Disney.  But isn’t that one of the many things, which makes sports amazing? If anyone had said before the NBA season began that, on a roster which includes perennial all-stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, the player to save the Knicks would be Jeremy Lin, I would have laughed right in their face.

And yet, only a few weeks later, here I am typing this column, wearing a Knicks shirt on which I have recently written “Lin 17” in permanent marker. Even more than the on-court performance, which has been unreal — he’s averaging almost 27 points and eight rebounds — Lin has brought an electricity, which hasn’t been seen at Madison Square Garden since the days of Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston.

It’s no secret that the past decade or so hasn’t been very kind to the Knicks. They have gone from one of the most prestigious franchises in the League to one of the biggest laughingstocks in all of sports. But when the Knicks are playing well, there’s no more exciting place to be than at Madison Square Garden and Lin has brought that swagger back to the Big Apple.

I know that for many fans of Virginia Basketball, Lin’s story might not seem all that relevant. But if you take a closer look, you’ll see that even the heroes of JPJ can learn something from Lin.

There’s a common misconception that academics and athletics in college are like oil and water — they can’t mix. But, Lin has shown that coming from a college, which demands strong academic performance from its athletes can be a boon for college sports stars.

Watching the Knicks play these past few games, it’s evident that Lin operates on a different intellectual field than most of his competition. He processes the game faster, can react to what defenses throw at him quicker and can out-think his opponents into providing openings for him to exploit. I guarantee you that these are traits, which he not only developed on Harvard’s practice courts, but also in the classroom. For athletes at Virginia or any university of its caliber, it would be wise to follow Lin’s example and see how classroom success can increase, rather than compromise, on-field performance.

Coming off my soapbox for a moment, I know it’s the basketball, which has “Linsanity” taking the nation by storm and Lin’s provided that in abundance. I don’t know if he can keep it going for the rest of the season — let alone his career — but despite what the talking heads on ESPN would have you believe, right now that really seems irrelevant.

It doesn’t matter whether Lin becomes a star in the league or simply fades back into the role of contributing point guard who can occasionally take over a game — a role which any Knicks fan who watched their team flounder in the pre-Lin days will tell you is important. It’s irrelevant because once again, Lin has shown the world it doesn’t matter what your pedigree is or where you come from. If you work hard enough and never stop believing, you’ll get your shot. And then it’s up to you not to miss it.

“Occupiers” around the nation and the plummeting employment rates for recent college graduates raised the question of whether or not the “American Dream” and underdog stories still exist today. But Lin has shown they haven’t completely disappeared. Sometimes, it just takes a little longer to see them.

So you can take your Rockys, your Rudys and your Average Joe’s Gyms and stuff them all in a sack, because I don’t want to hear it. The greatest story in sports right now is a point guard named Jeremy Lin and if you haven’t jumped on the “Linsanity” bandwagon yet, don’t worry — I’m driving it. And if you ask nicely, I can probably squeeze some room for you there on the corner of 33rd and 8th.