NEW YORK – Jeremy Lin’s first NBA coach was practically gushing as he listed the qualities that have made the former Harvard guard a star in New York.

The same ones, by the way, that would still have him riding Golden State’s bench.

And that couldn’t even get him drafted.

And that got him cut twice and demoted to the minors four times.

In fact, Keith Smart isn’t the only guy who didn’t see what he had with Lin.

“It’s good (the) Monday morning quarterbacks are here now,” said Smart, the former Indiana University star, “but no one could have predicted this guy being this big.”

Almost no one, anyway. Even Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni had so many questions about Lin’s defense and shooting that he gave him a chance only when the team was desperate. Now Lin’s control of the offense draws comparisons to Phoenix star Steve Nash.

But before picking on all the NBA people who missed on Lin, start with those hundreds of coaches who wouldn’t give him a scholarship to play in college.

“I couldn’t even get some D-III schools to look at me,” he said Thursday during an ESPN Radio interview.

How can that be? How did so many teams on so many levels pass on a guy who scored more points in his first five NBA starts than any player since the 1976-77 merger with the ABA?

“This is hard to predict,” D’Antoni said. “It’s like winning the lottery. You buy a ticket, you hope, but there’s no guarantee it’s going to happen.”

It sure didn’t in Golden State or Houston, where the teams liked Lin but had too many guards in front of him. And it wouldn’t have happened in New York if Baron Davis had gotten over his back woes sooner, or if Iman Shumpert didn’t hurt his knee in the season opener, or if any of the three point guards D’Antoni tried first had been able to run his offense properly.

It took all those circumstances to get Lin to New York, then onto the court, which is why Smart and Minnesota director of basketball operations Rob Babcock both called it a “perfect storm.”

Lin’s been so good that the NBA added him Thursday to the roster of players for the Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star weekend. He will play in the Feb. 24 game of rookies and second-year players.

The Warriors liked Lin, a native of Northern California, enough to give him a two-year deal. But Smart had a high-scoring backcourt with Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry, not to mention backups Reggie Williams and Acie Law. So the Warriors got Lin into only 29 games last season while sending him to Reno for three stints in the NBA Development League.

Lin played two games for Erie of the D-League under coach Jay Larranaga this season.

“He had good quickness and could shoot the ball fairly well,” Larranaga said. “I know there were about three or four teams who thought he had some NBA talent.”

Lin played one game, on Jan. 20, at Maine. He scored 28 points on 9 of 17 shooting with 11 rebounds, 12 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and 5 turnovers, in 44 minutes.