linSanity: jeremy lin, pride & the darker side
Disclaimer: I am Asian; Chinese in fact. Or rather Chinese American – born and raise in New York, NY then Nashville TN. And I am totally taken by the story of Jeremy Lin. Honestly, I was very skeptical at first that it would last, but 5 games in I have become a believer. To quote Eddie Huang:
Yes, I feel a bit of pride when I watch Jeremy Lin, because for the first time there is someone in the NBA that looks a little like me, sounds more like me and plays basketball the way I’d like to. I loved Yao too, but he was big and actually foreign. He was a gentle giant who played center with finesse, not power. While Lin may be humble off the court, he’s a guard attacking the basket. There is nothing soft about the way he plays the position. And so I watch (and re-watch) the highlights and analysis of the 23 year old Asian kid from Palo Alto making a dent in the NBA.
With all the love he’s received, it was only a matter of time before the haters came out. First off, thank you Jason Whitlock of FOX Sports for pointing out that Asian men have small penises. That is both very original and classy. Next, it’s nice to see that Floyd Mayweather can still provide racist comments as he heads off to prison. You’d think one racist rant against an Asian would be enough for one lifetime, but Floyd proves he has more in the tank. What’s funny, is that I don’t disagree with his comment. For a lot of people (me included) the hype around Lin is because he’s Asian American. Sure, there are other factors - everyone loves an underdog, he’s from Harvard, everyone overlooked him etc. etc. But because he’s Taiwanese American who can finish around the basket, he’s got a built in fan base.
In a way, Floyd’s comment doesn’t sting as much as how we got here. Lin’s story exemplifies the hidden world of racism that faces the yellow man. The racism that we face is not overt hatred or anger, but something more subtle – something between ignorance and denial (though I fear China’s ascendance may bring more of the former). More than a few articles have been written about how the analysts could have missed Jeremy Lin until now. It’s simple – fucking racism. People just couldn’t believe that a chink from Palo Alto could be as good as John Wall. If all these people thought he had the stuff, why didn’t they listen to themselves? There is really only one answer.
To his credit, Lin held his chin up and kept trying. He made the best of every stint in the D-League like a proper model minority should. But may be that’s the problem. If he had been louder would he have been noticed sooner? Watching the stereotypical Asian passivity can be infuriating (for me in particular). During Top Chef, I find myself wanting to scream at Chef Beverly Kim to fight back as her fellow cheftestant pile up on her. Equally infuriating is the subtle bigotry from other chefs on the show. When they quip that she “only cooks Asian” as if that is a valid critique, I think: you mean how the other cheftestants only cook “Western food”? FYI, half the world lives in Asia and eats only Asian food.
Most people would scoff that they are racist toward Asians (except Floyd Mayweather). “I have a lot of Asian friends,” they might say. But for the most part this sort of bigotry is subconscious. Just as the memory of Japanese American internment camps have all but disappeared from the American national consciousness, so have the conscious fears of Asians as the perpetual foreigner – but they are still there. No matter what Jeremy Lin does the rest of this season (or for his career), hopefully he has permanently broken a barrier. So when the next Asian kid who loves hoops comes around, the scouts won’t ignore their instinct and just go with the kid.
Some interesting reads:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2012/02/jeremy-lins-high-school-coach-says-race-hindered-opportunities.html
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/13/opinion/jeremy-lin-race/index.html
Word. I love Linsanity. I will say though, amongst us Asian-American rabid basketball fans, we all know he was there in Golden State. And we all knew he wasn’t going to get minutes after Monta and Steph Curry. There’s plenty of stereotypes and racism going on out there, but I think once he got on a team, it was just about opportunity. Maybe he didn’t play well in practice or something. Obviously talent evaluation is highly fucked up in the NBA, noted by how many lottery picks flop. But I think the combination of statistical analysis not being mature enough and most people reverting to physical analysis, Jlin is just a result of that.
Sure. We all knew he was in the league. But I think my point is that from all that we are hearing about scouts and evaluation on all levels (college and pro) people were less willing to give him a chance in spit of what they saw.
Also, did you read Adande’s article on Jeremy Lin’s success and the “system”.
Burried at the end of the article:
“Is it also possible that being Asian-American didn’t just feed the post-starting hype, it helped create the player? An NBA talent evaluator told me one reason Lin went undrafted was because “he was a victim of racial profiling because of his ethnicity.” Scouts hadn’t seen Asian-American guards succeed in the NBA, thus they had a hard time envisioning it for Lin.”
yea but to some degree this discrimination against players without obvious measurables has been part of basketball scouting forever. what i mean is that, there’s a reason why we’ve had a lot of busts in the lottery, full of guys who can run and jump high. because scouts all go back to the mean… they all have the same opinion. joe dumars isn’t completely stupid, i’m sure a lot of people liked darko. but he’s… darko. maybe scouts didn’t want to scout him because he couldn’t windmill, but scouts wouldn’t scout a black player who couldn’t windmill.
i agree Lin must have faced some negative stereotypes and racism, but let’s say we’re scouts… we both want to discover the next guy that other scouts don’t see, so that we can move beyond being a scout and be in the front office. it’s in every scout’s incentive to see it. i think his style of play, where his poise and way to run a team really doesn’t come across that well on paper.
the thing that surprised me the most was that now we look back, he had some great college games against boston college and uconn. And no one really gave him a hard look for a 2nd round pick just from that.
Why didn’t we listen to the FedEx guy?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577225562995441868.html
To a large degree, yes. But you of all poeple should understand that it isn’t his race, or that he went to Harvard or any of that. Put simply, he’s hot. He’s what’s popping. Time understands that and its their only interest. The US has been waiting for an opportunity to break bread in China forever. Remember Yao? Who else you know gets voted into the All-star game ever single year, injured or not, accomplished or not. These marketing folks know what they are doing.
A bit like DC comics rpeurheso Clark Kent, you know, the one with the nerd/superman alter ego. If you know how really tough NBA basketball is, you’ll appreciate his heroics for a success starved NY Knicks team. Now JLin needs to play well and consistently to deserve the point guard starting position.
More on race, ethnicity and the media:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/business/media/jeremy-lin-media-hype-stumbles-on-race.html?_r=1
At least Saturday Night Live gets it:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/linsanity-postgame-cold-open/1386272
/saturday-night-live-cold-opening-linsanity-postgame
The Mavericks may have found the biggest plseeer in the draft.I’m a big Jeremy Lin fan, and not just because he’s a future pastor/minister. At the 2010 Portsmouth Invitation (similar to the NFL’s pre-draft Senior Bowl) against future NBA draft picks, Jeremy Lin averaged 10 points, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 60% FG percentage. In 2008 in 7 games (some multiple) against Colorado, George Washington, UConn, and BC, he averaged 20 points, 5 rebs, 5 assists, and 3 steals, even though the other team was double or triple teaming him all game as the only good player for Harvard. In 2009 against UConn and BC twice he averaged 27 points, 5 rebs, 5 assists, and 3 steals, again while double or triple teamed. His entire life Jeremy Lin has constantly faced obstacles and discrimination (not to mention racial slurs) in the basketball world, because of his race. He was California’s basketball State Player of the Year after taking an unknown HS team to take the championship over powerhouse Mater Dei, yet was offered no Division-I basketball scholarship from any school. Harvard was the only school to give him a spot, and with no scholarship. I don’t think it ever happened before that a Player of the Year in a huge state like California, didn’t get any college scholarship offers to play. Then, at Harvard, all he did was break all sorts of conference records, put Harvard on the map without any other legit player on the team, and this year finished as a finalist for both the John Wooden and Bob Cousy Award, for best D-I college player and best D-I guard in the country. If his last name were different, he might have gotten a chance to start at a different college and become a 1st round pick. He is taller than Avery Bradley, and just as athletic if you look at his dunks, blocks, and steals playing against players who were picked in the draft.For those not familiar with him, here are some ESPN, Time Magazine, and Washington Post articles:time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1951044,00.htmlespn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=4730385washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/23/hoyas-preparing-for-crimsons-do-everything-lin/To the poster Rex’: Jeremy Lin plays an extremely unselfish game and makes his team’s better, but you can’t blame him for those losses. His Harvard team had literally no other decent players, and basketball is a team game. Everyone saw how far Cornell went this year in the March Madness tournament (Sweet 16), with 3 legit NBA prospects. Against Cornell, Jeremy’s Harvard team was no match, but Jeremy had 24 points on 7 for 12 shooting. He was hardly shut down’ by Cornell, he simply had no help.
I haven’t watch any of those specifically. Do you have a good link?I have a more mnduane explanation for the same outcome. Evil people will spontaneously cooperate and trade favors. I call then pyschopaths . Almost every State leader has the same personality type as Bernard Madoff. This applies to politicians, CEOs, high-ranking bureaucrats, and other State leaders.There are some honest-but-easily-manipulated people among the leaders. They are manipulated by the psychopaths to implement their agenda.Here is my alternate explanation, to evil Satanic cult . A bunch of evil leaders cooperating has the *EXACT SAME OUTCOME* as a massive coordinated evil conspiracy.
Keep it coming, wreitrs, this is good stuff.