Jeremy Lin has made me watch basketball again, but not just because he is an amazing athlete. He is a remarkable athlete with a compelling story. I was snagged from the time that I read the first NYTimes article about Lin sleeping on his brother’s couch on the Lower East Side. I’m a New Yorker, but it wasn’t he fact that Lin is now playing for the Knicks that held my attention. It was his character.

I’m not alone. Today, Forbes ran an article on 10 lessons (mostly character lessons) to learn from the latest basketball phenomenon. It highlighted the role that family played in forming Lin’s character – and resulting strong network of relationships that persist from long years of patient, persistent hard work.

Already much has been said about Lin as an Asian-American Christian. Michael Luo penned a piece for the NY Times that captured well why Linsanity spread nearly overnight among the well-educated Christian Asian-American networks (and particularly in NYC). What deserves note is the way that culture is transmitted through Asian-American families, and particularly Asian-American Christian families.

Children in these families are apprenticed in a way of being human that encourages learning, self-discipline, interdependence, patience, and persistence. As a result, there are a shocking number of second-generation immigrants at the most prestigious and rigorous schools in the United States. And now, there is also one who holds the attention of New Yorkers, basketball fans, and a folks who want a hero who has character and not just skills.