Cleveland Sports Forum

FedEx deliveryman predicted Jeremy Lin's fame

Bend, Oregon (CNN) --

Far from the glamour of Madison Square Garden, aboard a FedEx delivery truck in this small Oregon town, sits the one man who saw Jeremy Lin coming.

"I've always had a mind for numbers, the statistical side of sports," Ed Weiland explained.

He spends his days as a driver for FedEx, but once he punches out, he goes to work at his true passion: finding the best college basketball players in the country. He publishes his assessments on the sports blog hoopsanalyst.com.

In 2010, he chose Harvard senior Lin as his top point guard prospect, when no one else was paying much attention to the Ivy Leaguer.

Weiland never even saw Lin play, basing his assessment solely on stats.

The business of Jeremy Lin He breaks out every possible statistic when analyzing a player. He keeps all the information in an elaborate spreadsheet on an old Toshiba laptop in his modest apartment.

Weiland said Lin caught his eye because of his high two-point field goal percentage and his ability to rebound, steal and block.

"If you can do that at a high level in college, it probably means you are a dominant player," he said. "How often your team wins depends on putting it in [the basket] the most efficiently, and that's what the two-point percentage is a measure of."

Weiland found it intriguing that no one else seemed to be paying attention to Lin.

"I look for underdogs, but the player has to be good. I won't specifically say I'm going to find myself an underdog, because Jeremy Lins don't happen every year," Weiland explained. "But when they do, you want to be ready to say, 'This is a guy we should look at.' "

Outside of the online world of "stat heads," as amateur analysts call themselves, no one paid much attention to Weiland's 2010 assessment. Lin wasn't even picked in the NBA draft. He played briefly for the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, but he was cut from both teams without making much of an impact before being picked up by the New York Knicks in late 2011.

Opinion: Linsanity vs. Tebowmania

As Lin bounced around the league, Weiland monitored his progress.

"I kind of kept an eye on him. That's what I do with players like that," he said.

Then one morning in early February, he went online to check some NBA scores and he saw a headline that read "Linsanity." He knew his prospect was taking off. A victory over Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers kicked Linsanity into high gear.

"After the Lakers game, the original article I wrote went viral," he said.

Jeremy Lins don't happen every year. But when they do, you want to be ready to say, 'This is a guy we should look at.'

Ed Weiland, FedEx driver and amateur sports statisticianArticles in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have fueled interest in Weiland. His phone hasn't stopped ringing with reporters from across the country. FedEx is giving him time off to handle news requests.

"When I led the 2010 preview off with Jeremy Lin, the idea was that if and when he broke out, there might be some notoriety there," he said. "I obviously never expected anything like this for him or for me."

It's all a bit much for a 51-year-old vegan who tries to live a simple small-town life.

"I'm having fun with it. I'm trying to be careful to be the same guy I've always been, because I did like that guy, and I want to continue to be that guy," he said.

Weiland sees himself as an underdog in the world of sports analysis, just like Lin is an underdog in the NBA. He has never been in contact with Lin but would like to meet him one day.

Until then, he has a message for the young basketball star as he makes his way through the "Linsanity" that surrounds him:

"Just keep playing the way you've been playing."
Behind the man who predicted Linsanity

In May 2010, an unsung numbers hobbyist named Ed Weiland wrote a long-term forecast of Jeremy Lin for the basketball website Hoops Analyst.

But Weiland saw NBA material. He emphasized how well Lin played in three non-conference 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 to 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."

In the wake of Lin's historic New York explosion — he guided the Knicks to a seventh straight win with a double-double against Sacramento Wednesday night — Weiland's eerily prescient post has quickly recirculated around the Internet as a rare example of someone who saw potential in a player who wasn't drafted and was abandoned by two teams before getting a chance with the Knicks.

Traffic rushing to Weiland's 2010 Lin piece briefly crashed the Hoops Analyst website after Lin torched the Lakers for 38 points Friday, and his wisdom has been compared with the groundbreaking number-crunching in the baseball best seller "Moneyball," which became a recent Hollywood movie.

Monitoring from his silver Toshiba laptop, Weiland has been amused by the new appreciation of his work. A 51-year-old father of two, grandfather of one, vegan and amateur trail runner who lives by himself in Bend, Ore. — a region full of cyclists and snowboarders — Weiland doesn't fit the profile of a 21st-century sports wonk.

"You were probably expecting a 22-year-old MIT graduate," Weiland said Wednesday, in his first interview since Linsanity began.

In the 1980s, Weiland became fascinated by the work of Bill James, an ex-security guard whose detailed baseball analysis would later help revolutionize that sport.

For fun, Weiland began to compile his own data. A fan of the Michael Jordan Bulls, Weiland was living in Chicago when he began to find like-minded hobbyists on the internet. He began self-publishing his insights online. Weiland connected with Hoops Analyst in the mid-2000s.

"He had a special interest in translating how NCAA players would do when they came to the NBA," said the site's founder, Harlan Schreiber. "Jeremy Lin is just an example of what he's been doing for years."

Weiland said that he'd once hoped to turn his stats hobby into a professional career, but it was "never a burning ambition." He compared it to friends who played music for love.

I learned today that a good friend I had worked with back in South Carolina has passed.

I knew he had been sick for a long time, but the last time I checked in a couple years ago he seemed fine.

He was a good man, and a pleasure to work with.

He was with me on the day I met my wife, and he finagled a way to get me his hotel room to see her a 2nd time when all other hotels were sold out in those dot com years out here.

I shed a tear as I read his obituary.


He was a man's man....AND a ladies man.


And a Gentleman.

I should have checked in with him more often.

I'll learn. And, I have.

My condolences, CALI.
People drift in and out of our lives, and it's difficult to keep up with everyone.

J.R. wrote:My condolences, CALI.
People drift in and out of our lives, and it's difficult to keep up with everyone.

Correctamundo.

Queue Dobie Gray.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaPnOASOWIU

I really hate that I did not check in more often with that guy I really appreciated who passed.

I believe everyone here should show up and post at least every 30 days, so none of of us have to go looking for you or reading about after the fact....

He was with me on the day I met my wife, and he finagled a way to get me his hotel room to see her a 2nd time when all other hotels were sold out in those dot com years out here.

With his prior approval, I took my/his room as Mr. John Edwards, from The Carolinas. His stay was up, but he had an option to extend, which he transferred to me so I could have yet another day to chase the girl I wanted for my next wife.

It all worked out.

Damn, I miss that guy and regret that I never told him how much I respected and appreciated him.

J.R. wrote:My condolences, CALI.
People drift in and out of our lives, and it's difficult to keep up with everyone.

I can count cards in a six deck shoe playing black jack.


I should be able to keep track of everyone.



Where the heck is Donna and Denver Lou?

DENVER LOU hasn't posted much in the last couple years. I hope to see him at some ST games in FL next month.

DONNA continues to have vision and word recognition problems since her second stroke last summer, so can't do much online.

I never knew that Donna had a stroke or strokes JR. I'll have to send a card this weekend.

They affected the occipital lobe of her brain. Mostly vision and memory issues. She can still talk, walk, and has full range of motion, according to her husband and daughter.

Thanks for that update JR.

J.R. wrote:They affected the occipital lobe of her brain. Mostly vision and memory issues. She can still talk, walk, and has full range of motion, according to her husband and daughter.

Then certainly, prayers for Donna.

I'll be an optimist in that I have seen many people over the years, including my father make complete recoveries.

J.R. wrote:DENVER LOU hasn't posted much in the last couple years. I hope to see him at some ST games in FL next month.

TBD, but I might get a wild hair and end up in Goodyear for a day or two sometime during the first 10 days of March.

Tightrope walker to attempt first crossing of Niagara Falls




By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK | Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:55pm EST

(Reuters) - Canada agreed on Wednesday to allow a member of the Flying Wallenda family of daredevils to attempt a tightrope walk over Niagara Falls, clearing the way for the stunt some time during the summer.

Nik Wallenda, 33, secured support on the American side of the falls last September when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill giving him one year to perform the feat, which Wallenda says will be the first attempt in more than a century.

On Wednesday, the board of Canada's Niagara Parks Commission voted unanimously to allow Wallenda to go ahead, reversing its earlier decision.

"It's been a dream of mine since I was 6 years old," Wallenda said by telephone from Niagara, where he had earlier attended the board meeting. "This was a dream many told me was impossible: two countries to change laws. I'm blessed, that's all I can say."

The Niagara Parks Commission also passed a motion on Wednesday barring a similar stunt more than once every 20 years.

"This decision was approved in part in recognition of the role that stunting has played in the history and promotion of Niagara Falls," Janice Thomson, the chairwoman of the commission, said in a statement.

"We have made it clear that this is a very unique one-time situation. It's not an everyday activity and will not be allowed to become an everyday activity."

Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the Wallenda family of circus performers who said he has been tightrope-walking since he was 2 years old, said he will be the first person to ever cross directly over the falls. Past attempts took place further down the gorge, he said.

"I'll be walking through the mist thrown off by the falls," he said, adding that although that may sound as though it would cause slippery conditions, his suede wire-walking shoes actually grip better when wet.

He plans to rig a 2-inch-diameter wire rope between cranes on either side of the falls, some 1,800 feet apart, he said. The date has not been set, but is expected to be in the summer.

He will continue to train on a full-scale high-wire rig on an airport runway in Pittsburgh, with simulated mist.

"I've done walks farther and higher," he said. "This will be the most iconic."

(Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Osterman)

Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:Hey, Civ (sic)....er, Seagull, I just added $1750 dollars to my gambling bankroll play at the casino beside Frank Sinatra's old place on the North Shoe of Tahoe.

I actually took a cab home about 750 feet because I had more than a couple grand in my pocket. I tipped the cabbie well.

I've played black jack, usually pretty well, for years. This session last Friday night was not one of my biggest winners, but was one of the most noteworthy for me personally.

I look for my spots, ideally seeking a table play for a notch or two above the minimum to get the riffraff out, with people who seem to know the basics, of course, and where I can occupy 3rd base. Most black jack players and all casinos know the possible advantages of sitting at 3rd base.

Playing at Tahoe North Shore is usually not big gaming ground. I caught a table with a guy from China seated at 3rd base, his buddy two seats to his right, and some late 20'ish hipsters who were smart and paying attention....albeit not seasoned black jack players.

I took the seat to the right of the 3rd baseman and just treaded water with my wagers for awhile. I played incremental bets as I watched the cards that were dealt.

With the game as I was seeing it play out, and the shoe, I put up a wager of $55. I often wager way more, but it was my top first card wager of the night as I was evaluating the field of play.

I was dealt a pair of Aces against a dealer's five. I put up the additional $55 to split them again.

I'm not a big fan of splitting aces for a wager, even against a five.

On my 3rd card I was dealt another Ace and ponied up another $55 to have a total of $165 on the table wager.

On a split ace you only get one card. I was hit with a three, a three and a seven.

At that point I figured I likely had two losers, but a fighting chance at one winner in the three $55 bets.

I had fist hit with the guy from China a few times earlier in the evening as he did well as I was just holding my own. He spoke little English.

He was holding two cards, a deuce and a seven, for a total of nine. Against a dealer's upcard of five in a deck somewhat rich with face cards.

I would have double downed on that one hugely, every day of the week.

He looked down at my lame cards and my splits, and then waved the dealer off on his hit.

He STAYED on nine. Against a FIVE.

I would have easily forked over another grand for my wager in that situation.

Part of me wonders if he saw her hole card, and most of me thinks he is a great guy to play black jack with.

The dealer busted, and the table won.

He stood pat on an every book double down hand with a nice wager up.

With him playing to my left, I pulled back $165 of my winnings and let $165 ride. And soon I walked out with $1750 in profit.


Here's to good black jack playing partners from China.

He STAYED on nine. Against a FIVE.

I can see not doubling down but why would anybody stay on NINE?