In a society that loves the underdog, it’s easy to see why everyone’s excited about Jeremy Lin. He has every piece of the perfect movie script: rags to riches, smarts meets sports (went to Harvard), narrow escape (was nearly cut from his third team), and rescue (saved the Knicks). Talk about making your mother proud!

So how does it add up for Jeremy game by game?  Let’s do the math.

Wee ones: If you shoot the basketball 3 times, and score 3 points each time, how many points did you score?

Little kids:  If you’re playing basketball and you make 16 2-point shots, how many points did you score?  Bonus:  What if they were all 3-pointers instead?

Big kids: If in a basketball game you shoot 21 times, and a third of the time you miss, a third of them are 2-pointers, and a third are 3-pointers, how many points do you score?

Bonus: How does that relate to your number of shots?  So if you score 50 points with that same split, how many shots did you try?

(Note: If your kids don’t like basketball, try a lemonade stand: sell 14 cups for $2 each,then for $3 each; make 21 cups and give away a third, sell a third for $2 and a third for $3…Or they can sell M&Ms, Lego City police-car sets – go to town.)

Answers for the above numbers:

Wee ones: 9 points.

Little kids:  32 points.  Bonus:  48 points.

Big kids:  35 points.  Bonus:  It’s 1/3 of your shots, multiplied by 5 (or 5/3rds): a third of 21 is 7, x 5 = 35.  So 50 points means that a fifth of that (10) equals a third of your shots, so you attempted 30 shots. And in fact, 30 x 5/3rds = 50.