Jeremy Lin's Fans Include Former High School Teammates Jeremy Lin's hometown, Palo Alto, Calif., was well represented on Sunday. A group who knew Lin before Linsanity, including the former Palo Alto High School basketball players Chris Bobel, Kevin Trimble, Kheaton Scott, Greg Walder, Brian Baskauskas and Amar Miglani, purchased tickets online and made the pilgrimage to Madison Square Garden to see Lin and the Knicks defeat the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. They could not get seats together, and most of them sat in Section 419, nosebleed Garden real estate that is about as sought-after as Landry Fields's couch was before Lin made it his temporary home. There was little fanfare for Lin's friends, except for their own clever T-shirts that represented their roots and Lin's rare path to N.B.A. success. Lin's former teammates, who did not have postgame passes to visit Lin in the Knicks" locker room, were ushered out of the Garden after waiting around to try to get near the court or locker room to say hello to their friend after the game. Bobel, who works as a salesman, graduated high school four years ahead of Lin and was a walk-on player at Stanford. He described Lin as someone who could dominate with the ball in his hands, a "game-management guru." Closer to the spotlight, and the court, were Lin's high school coach, Peter Diepenbrock, who granted a television interview during the game, and Doc Scheppler, whom Lin has credited with helping him improve his shot. "True to the American dream, when you get a chance, you've got to embrace that challenge," Scheppler said. "There's a certain anxiety level you have to play" with to be successful, and "having been a high school coach for thirty-five years myself, most kids go above it and play too hard, and some other kids don't play hard enough." CUBAN WEIGHS IN Mark Cuban, seated on the Mavericks bench, his legs stretched out, spoke for about 25 minutes before the game on several things N.B.A., and, of course, Jeremy Lin. He said he was more than happy to talk basketball; after all, that is his business. "I mean, Mark Zuckerberg likes to talk about Facebook," he said. Michael Dell likes to talk about Dell Computer. Mavs are my product, that's my business. He added, "We can talk about any of my businesses, and I'll be happy to talk about it." And talk he did. He said various aspects of the new collective bargaining agreement worked against the ability to re-sign Knicks center Tyson Chandler, who won a title with Dallas last season. "You have to adjust how you build and grow and maintain, and try and win a championship," he said. We did what we felt we had to do, not because we wanted to do it. Bu added that the Mavericks, "wouldn't have been champions without Tyson." He said he was rooting for the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets - believed to be a primary suitor vying for Deron Williams and Dwight Howard this summer - to be successful, although adding with a laugh that he hoped the team would not be too good. Then the hot topic came up: what did he think of Lin, who played in the Mavericks" summer league in 2010? "We're proud of Jeremy," said Cuban, joking that he may put Lin's old Mavericks jersey on eBay. He worked hard and he earned it. Cuban said he tried to keep Lin. "We offered him a contract," Cuban said. And he told us he wanted to go back and play closer to home. Lin then signed with Golden State Warriors, who eventually cut him, as did the Houston Rockets before the Knicks picked him up off waivers in late December. "It's Rocky versus Apollo Creed," Cuban said. The more Rocky opportunities we have, the more nonsports fans get involved. Cuban said that Lin's work ethic stood out when he was with the Mavericks, and that he expected that would only continue to help him. "He wants to get better and continue to get better, and that's going to be the key," Cuban said. Six games isn't a career. We'll see what he does. The Mavericks found out Sunday what he can do.