Harvard grad Wesley Saunders was a 4-time Ivy League champion. That’s not the same thing as a 4-time ACC champ, but Knicks guru Phil Jackson thinks the 6’5″ Saunders may be an Ivy League breakout type player. Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said about Saunders that there wasn’t a “college team in the country that wouldn’t love to have that kid.” And though Ivy Leaguers hanging on in the NBA are as rare as Yale grad (and former Knick) Chris Dudley making a free throw, it’s happened. Have you heard of Jeremy Lin?
Undrafted Harvard guard Wesley Saunders has agreed to a partially guaranteed deal with the New York Knicks, league sources tell RealGM.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 25, 2015
Lin famously went to Harvard — and his accomplishments there, while excellent, weren’t quite what Saunders produced. (Saunders averaged nearly 17 points a game last year and was Ivy League Player of the Year in 2014.) Is Jackson looking for Linsanity 2? No — and neither is Jeremy Lin for that matter. But Saunders could play well enough to make Knicks fans forget about Iman Shumpert, who Jackson shipped to Cleveland midseason last year. The two players are nearly identical in size and play a similar style.
[BONUS: The Jeremy Lin Quiz — Think You Know Jeremy Lin? 13 Questions]
