Feburary 6, 2012. It’s the birth of the phenomenon Linsanity; an underdog story featuring Jeremy Lin, an Asian American NBA player finally getting his chance to play at the highest level in the world, for one of the most popular teams in the New York Knicks. For a kid that barely got recruited in high school and undrafted after playing for Harvard, skeptics have always surrounded Lin. His critics have labeled him as being too slow to play in NBA, not athletic enough, and one trait that he can’t deny or ever overcome: he’s Asian.
“First of all, Jeremy Lin gets all this credit because he’s an Asian player in the NBA that African-Americans never get?” professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. wrote in a recent tweet. “Yeah, he’s getting all this praise because he is an Asian guy playing in the NBA.”
The Asian stereotype often revolves around their usually small physical stature and focus in putting academics first. Asians in today’s culture are seen as brainiacs rather than athletes. From a personal view many Asians have different values than the average American, as they are taught to excel in more studious areas rather than sports. This has created a deficiency that produces a large gap between Asian scholars and athletes.
“I don’t know if it (Linsanity) will change a lot of minds immediately, but I do think it will have more of a long-term effect,”Grace Chung Becker, president of the Fairfax Country Association for the Gifted said in a Washington Post article. “Maybe a child down the road who’s showing talent, their parents will do some research and find Jeremy Lin and see that he went to Harvard and that he’s not only talented but smart, and say, ‘Here’s a role model for my child.’”
The question raised is why does it matter? Shouldn’t people be judging Lin for his game rather than his color? There is no denying that some of his new found fame is from his race, but wouldn’t an African American player in the same shoes of Lin attain new found fame for saving the Knick’s season and breaking records? The stigma that surrounds Lin’s fame due to his race clouds the feel good story that everyone loves to see in sports.
“I think this is why we all follow sports because of great stories like this, that all of a sudden someone breaks through that you didn’t know or didn’t expect” tennis superstar Roger Federer said in a recent interview when asked about Lin.
Linsanity has been hitting a rough spot recently with the Knicks stumbling a bit and mediocre play from Lin himself. There are people out there hoping Lin will be a bust due to jealously of his newfound fame from his race. Sooner or later they all need to learn, that Lin is just another basketball player getting his chance to achieve his dream.