Film director and passionate New York Knicks supporter Spike Lee has fired back at Floyd Mayweather's comments that all the hype around Jeremy Lin is about his race and not his basketball skills.

Lee also spoke Wednesday on MSNBC about the global "Lin-sanity" phenomenon that surrounds the first US-born player of Taiwanese and Chinese heritage, who has the most points of any NBA player in his first five starts since 1976.

"Don't try to explain it, dissect it," Lee said. "We're just in the middle of it and enjoy it. Especially if you are a Knick fan.

"It's a great American story. A great American story."

Lin, a 23-year-old point guard who was an economics major at Harvard, went undrafted by the NBA, was cut last December by Golden State and Houston, and was seeing little playing time for the Knicks.

But when Carmelo Anthony was sidelined with a groin strain and Amare Stoudemire was absent for a week after the death of his brother in a car crash, Lin received his chance and made the most of it.

After an already astonishing run of leading the Knicks to five wins in a row with precision passing and dramatic drives to the hoop, Lin hit the winning three-pointer with half-a-second remaining on Tuesday to defeat Toronto.

"Floyd Mayweather I Hope You Watched Jeremy Hit The Gamewinning 3 Pointer With .5 Seconds Left.Our Guy Can BALL PLAIN AND SIMPLE.RECOGNIZE." Lee posted on his Twitter account.

Mayweather had said the hype around Lin was all because of his Asian heritage.

"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise," Mayweather said in a Twitter posting on Monday.

After criticism was heaped upon him from other Twitter users, Mayweather said his comments were meant as support for black athletes.

"Other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine. As soon as I support Black American athletes, I get criticized," Mayweather posted on Twitter. "Wow what a country."

He later added, "I'm speaking my mind on behalf of other NBA players. They are programmed to be politically correct and will be penalized if they speak up."

Lin's parents moved to the United States from Taiwan in the 1970s while one of his grandmothers remained in China.

Lee, who has followed the Knicks' fortunes for decades, was among those struck by Lin's amazing feats, efforts that landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, an iconic achievement for a man unknown two weeks ago.

"The team has been put in the hands of this guy who really has only played seven really meaningful games in his basketball career," Lee said.

"The guy they overlooked all this time, he became the guy that's now the international hero. It's amazing. Everywhere in the world, they are talking about Lin," he said.

"Something has happened that there's no explanation for."

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