# The Jeremy Lin Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 11, 2012, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509 "2012-02-11T08:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/41 "2012-02-13T20:34:15Z")
> [@lshaw](#): > > I agree the hype will die down and that he’s not the immortal the media has made him out to be, but as to why it became a media circus in the first place, isn’t it obvious. > > He’s the unlikely hero who perservered despite it all. Passed up or ignored all his playing life. Asian American player in a country where Asian guys are thought of as effeminate, non-athletic, and excelling solely in academic endeavors. Bounced around in the league because no one believed in him or gave him a shot, and he was pretty much relegated to being a benchwarmer and playing garbage minutes. Was probably nearing his last chance at staying in the big leagues before he was given a once in a lifetime opportunity. Made the most of it and pulled through in a big way. Come on, America just eats this stuff up. It’s like 20 different Hollywood movies I’ve watched, minus the Asian American angle because let’s face it, when have you ever seen a non stereotypical Asian leading role. > > No, it’s not just about the Knicks. It’s the confluence of many things when the stars aligned. The team sucked, reeked, and needed a breath of fresh air. The star players were out. The coach was rumored to be on the chopping block and was desperate. They wouldn’t have played Lim in the capacity that they had, but they had no choice. So the opportunity arose, finally. And the unlikely hero entered. > > That he is Asian American matters - it contributes to the whole underdog story and makes it all more hypeable by the media. The perception that Asian American guys are not as masculine, athletic, etc is just so strong within the context of the US that when a guy comes through and shows he can play ball and not a ping pong ball, it’s mindblowing to some people - scouts, GMs, and reporters included (one of the many jeers thrown at him in his college days was, “Orchestra is on the other side of the campus”). Or a novelty. Almost every news article I have read has made a point of saying that he’s the first American of Chinese/Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA. Lin himself was quoted as saying that he felt his race definitely changed the way he was recruited. Can you blame him for feeling that way. He was the runaway choice for HS player of the year by virtually every California publication (according to ESPN anyway) and was named first-team All State player in CA… and ended up being passed over by every college’s basketball team he applied to, save Harvard and Brown. And even Harvard’s crappy basketball program (non D1) initially said they weren’t interested… until they actually bothered taking a closer look at him playing and ate their words. > > Fast forward to now. When he seemingly came out of nowhere (more like people finally opened their eyes), played relatively well, and helped the team with some much needed wins, it gave people something to be excited about. It gave the media something to hype about, and hype they did. All these headlines are raving about how a benchwarmer, a player from a crap bball program at Harvard, an Asian dude with a 4.2 HS gpa and perfect SAT Math IIC score from an area more known for producing stars in startup entrepreneurs and computer engineers, can actually play. Everyone who had been followimg him since his high school and college days are like, no shit Sherlock. This may be true with NBA fans who are aware of professional basketball culture and fan attitudes, but as it filters down to the masses, I think the racist angle is lost, or at least deemphasized. Take me as a data point: I haven’t followed professional basketball in decades. I can barely name you the teams. I certainly don’t know who the big-name players are (OK, Kobe Bryant rings a bell, but I couldn’t pick him out of a crowd), and I _certainly_ have no clue as to the prevailing attitudes about Asians in the NBA. When I heard about Jeremy Lin, the remarkability of the story cam 100% from the underdog-rises-to-the-challenge angle. Hell, I thought his name was Jeremy _Lynn_, and I had no idea, for part of the story, that he was Asian. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/42 "2012-02-13T20:59:43Z")
> [@lshaw](#): > > And even Harvard’s crappy basketball program (non D1) initially said they weren’t interested… until they actually bothered taking a closer look at him playing and ate their words. Er, not only is Harvard a D-I basketball school, they’ve been ranked in the Top 25 for a large part of this season–something almost entirely unheard of in their past. They’ve really improved over the last five years. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/43 "2012-02-13T21:20:22Z")
I hope he comes to the Lakers. We’ve got a ton of Taiwanese here ready to idolize him, if they already haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/44 "2012-02-13T21:54:06Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I hope he comes to the Lakers. We’ve got a ton of Taiwanese here ready to idolize him, if they already haven’t. Well, the Lakers did have their shot at him, but politely declined. And as for people who already idolize him, that includes pretty much every New York-area Asian, part-Asian and wannabe-Asian. As my Korean friend proclaimed to his buddies on Friday night, after watching Lin light up the Lakers: “Let’s go out and find some white women to have sex with! This might be our only chance!” [/paraphrase] ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/45 "2012-02-13T22:27:25Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Well, the Lakers did have their shot at him, but politely declined. Yeah- he’s bounced around the league a few teams have been interested in him, but he wasn’t drafted and certainly nobody saw this coming. The Mavs also tried to get him last year before the Warriors signed him, and if he’d signed with them he might’ve won a championship last year. He took a hometown discount to go with the Warriors instead. After they cut him, Houston gave him a look, then the Knicks. It’s not that nobody thought he was any good, it’s that he hadn’t landed in the right place and been given enough of an opportunity. It’s a great story about a guy rising to the moment. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/46 "2012-02-13T23:10:46Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Well, would you say that Anthony is a better player than Lin? Going by his last Lin’s last five games, absolutely not. Lin is famous right now **because he’s scoring an absolute assload of points** ; his points in his first four games as a starter were the most by any player in their first four starts in 35 years, and in his five games as New York’s primary point guard he has 26.8 PPG, which is more what you’d get out of your big scoring forward and is a lot better than Anthony, who this year isn’t putting up good numbers. Indeed, Lin’s points-to-assists ratio is kind of skewed AWAY from what you’d expect of a great “team player” point guard. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/47 "2012-02-14T01:03:55Z")
I haven’t seen much of Lin, but I’m betting that opposing defenses have been giving him open looks and challenging him to make them. That’s precisely what you want from any point guard, because it forces the defense to keep a man on him and opens things up for everyone else. It’s the reason why Rondo isn’t an elite point guard, because he becomes a liability on offense in the last two minutes of a game. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/48 "2012-02-14T13:19:44Z")
I’m disappointed at some of the racist things that seem to be flying around. These kind of comments are terrible. [This guy should obviously be fired. Who would even tweet something like this?](http://mashable.com/2012/02/13/whitlock-apologizes-for-lin-tweet/) [And apparently Floyd Mayweather thinks all the hype is because he is Asian. Apparently, he thinks lots of black players perform like Lin all the time. Which apparently makes this…no big deal?](http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/floyd-mayweather-hits-jeremy-lin-tweet-dismissing-linsanity-a-product-asian-influence-article-1.1022057) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/49 "2012-02-14T15:20:23Z")
One thing that I thought I’d point out, only because so many media commentators haven’t… Jeremy Lin is AMERICAN! He was born and raised HERE in the U.S.A., just as I was! I can certainly understand why Asian-American sports fans would look at him and say, “YESSSSS! It’s about time!” Asian-American sports stars are rare enough that Asian-American fans almost have to embrace the few that come along. But so many commentators are talking about Lin as a sign of how international the game of basketball has become. And that irritates me, because Lin is NOT an example of how “international” the NBA has become. Yao Ming was an international player. Ricky Rubio is an international player. Dirk Nowitzki is an international player. But Jeremy Lin is as American as I am! ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/50 "2012-02-14T15:20:47Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Er, not only is Harvard a D-I basketball school, they’ve been ranked in the Top 25 for a large part of this season–something almost entirely unheard of in their past. They’ve really improved over the last five years. Clarification: non D1 scholarship. Lin’s top choices were UCLA, Cal, and Stanford And yes you say Harvard is improving now, but it was not the case at the time he was recruited. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/51 "2012-02-14T15:36:37Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > … > [And apparently Floyd Mayweather thinks all the hype is because he is Asian. Apparently, he thinks lots of black players perform like Lin all the time. Which apparently makes this…no big deal?](http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/floyd-mayweather-hits-jeremy-lin-tweet-dismissing-linsanity-a-product-asian-influence-article-1.1022057) Mayweather is half right. Let’s be honest here, much of the story here is Lin being Asian-American. What Mayweather is wrong about is that Lin is only doing what black players routinely do. Lin is playing much better than the Knicks’ other (black) point guards, and has put up historic first-few-games stats. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/52 "2012-02-14T15:48:48Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But so many commentators are talking about Lin as a sign of how international the game of basketball has become. And that irritates me, because Lin is NOT an example of how “international” the NBA has become. Please tell me where you’re seeing this so I can not watch or listen to those people. :smack: There have been a few Asian players in the league, but he’s the first Asian-American. That’s one of the basic facts in the story. > [@garygnu](#): > > Mayweather is half right. Let’s be honest here, much of the story here is Lin being Asian-American. Nobody said otherwise- in fact everybody’s been upfront about that fact, and there’s nothing wrong with pointing it out. If Lin was white or black he’s still be quite a story even if it’d be less of a big deal, and there aren’t a whole lot of guys who have outplayed him over the last few games. Mayweather is an ass and he seems to really have a problem with Asian people. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/53 "2012-02-14T16:41:43Z")
It’s a perfect storm of events: Underdog kid, Asian-American from Harvard, kicked around the league for a couple of years, one day away from being cut, comes on for the Knicks, who have been struggling and takes off…in New York, a town not known for its subtlety when it comes to sports, especially basketball. Throw in a outstanding game against the Los Angeles Lakers and you have your recipe. It isn’t any one of these things, it’s all of them. You take any one of them away and it probably isn’t half the story it is now. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/54 "2012-02-14T17:27:23Z")
The kid is an inspiration to young players, for sure. He saw an opportunity with the team stars on the bench and made the most of it. Even if he ends up back on the bench, other teams will be recruiting. Man, Portland _really_ needs a point guard who can be a closer. Aldridge can’t do it all. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/55 "2012-02-14T18:22:52Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Mayweather is half right. Let’s be honest here, much of the story here is Lin being Asian-American. What Mayweather is wrong about is that Lin is only doing what black players routinely do. Lin is playing much better than the Knicks’ other (black) point guards, and has put up historic first-few-games stats. And the half he is wrong about it pretty weird. I agree about part of it. However, if a young black guy came out of nowhere like this, it would receive some big attention. Him not being drafted and never having been heard of is quite a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/56 "2012-02-14T19:09:32Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Him not being drafted and never having been heard of is quite a big deal. [Harvard standout Jeremy Lin ready to prove himself with the Warriors.](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/frank_hughes/07/26/jeremy.lin.warriors/index.html) (Sports Illustrated, July 2010) He certainly wasn’t on a lot of people’s radar, but saying he’d never been heard of is going too far. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/57 "2012-02-14T20:57:18Z")
Well, if the Knicks hadn’t found him playing street ball during his breaks from his work as a junior associate at Goldman Sachs, who knows if anyone would ever realize his talents? ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/58 "2012-02-14T21:57:19Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > …as a junior associate at Goldman Sachs, who knows if anyone would ever realize his talents? The timing definitely makes sense, as Goldman pays out bonuses in the late-Jan or early Feb time frame. Like many other Wall Streeters, he grabbed his bonus and left for greener pastures! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/59 "2012-02-15T00:01:21Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > [Harvard standout Jeremy Lin ready to prove himself with the Warriors.](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/frank_hughes/07/26/jeremy.lin.warriors/index.html) (Sports Illustrated, July 2010) He certainly wasn’t on a lot of people’s radar, but saying he’d never been heard of is going too far. Agreed. I just meant 'kind of" out of nowhere. I wasn’t clear. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509/60 "2012-02-15T01:48:01Z")
Something to keep in mind is that D’Antoni runs a very pg friendly system, Chris Duhon looked great under him too and now i dread it every time he comes on the court for the Magic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeremy-lin-thread/612509.md?page=4)