Finally got around to reading “The Delivery Guy Who Saw Jeremy Lin Coming,” Jason Gay’s fun WSJ piece about an amateur numbers-cruncher who predicted the unlikely rise of the NBA’s newest superstar. An excerpt:

“In May 2010, an unsung numbers hobbyist named Ed Weiland wrote a long-term forecast of Jeremy Lin for the basketball website Hoops Analyst. At the time, Lin was a lightly regarded, semi-known point guard who had completed his final season at Harvard. But Weiland saw NBA material. He emphasized how well Lin played in three nonconference games against big schools: Connecticut, Boston College and Georgetown. He noted how Lin’s performance in two unsexy statistical categories—two-point field-goal percentage (a barometer of inside scoring ability) and RSB40 (rebounds, steals and blocks per 40 minutes) compared favorably with college numbers put up by marquee NBA guards like Allen Iverson and Gary Payton. Weiland concluded that Lin had to improve on his passing and leadership at the point, but argued that if he did, ‘Jeremy Lin is a good enough player to start in the NBA and possibly star.’”

Read also: 

• Years before Bill James, a Brooklyn man tried to revolutionize baseball stats.