This Jeremy Lin Hoopla is getting out of hand. As an Asian American, I am happy for the guy. He is putting up great numbers. Borderline All-Star numbers! Some haters may argue that he hasn’t faced the top teams yet. This argument is valid. Sure they faced the Lakers (my team) but let’s be honest, any decent point guard usually puts up monster numbers against them. People drive past Fisher and Blake like they are homeless people on the street. Some might argue that 8 games is too soon to tell whether he will make be able to keep this up. Again it is a small sample size given that he played most of them games without Amare or Melo. With all that being said, we all know that this dude can play point. He is a solid guard regardless of his race. The dude can straight up play. And yes he needs to fix his high turnover numbers but I’m assuming that will come with him getting more adjusted to the game.
The thing that frustrates me is the pressure that the Asian Americans have put on him. His story is a great one. It’s a perfect underdog story. But its getting out of hand. It started off with Floyd Mayweather and his retarded tweet about how Jeremy Lin is getting all this press cuz he is asian. As much of an idiot, Mayweather is, he is true in the sense that Jlin is getting this press because its odd to see an Asian American point guard doing well. I disagree with Mayweather saying that all black players play like this all time. This is where generalizations lead to problems.
Along those lines, Ms. Jenny Hyun, a songwriter, responded to Mayweather’s tweet with some of the most ignorant shit I have ever read. Ms. Hyun felt compelled to write some of the most racist, borderline Hitler-esque hate speech I have read in a while. I tend to have a shitty gauge for whats politically acceptable but this chick actually go damn that’s fuuccccked up. I haven’t reacted like that in a long time. I actually am more upset with her tweets than Mayweather’s tweets because she suggested eliminating black people and bringing up references to slavery.
This Bitch is retarded!
Then the next media shitstorm came when ESPN used the caption “chink in the armor” to refer to the Knicks first loss under the Lin era. The asian American online folks, the Yellow Panthers as I like to call em, went crazy. They demanded action. ESPN fired the dude that let the caption be put online and suspended the anchor who said it on stage. Even after this, people are still not too happy about it. Personally, I was disappointed because ESPN wouldn’t have dared putting shit up like that referring to blacks, latinos, or any other minority group. They MUST have known that this was a jab at his ethnicity. I actually tried to think of racist headlines for other ethnicities. I came up with a list but that was just to give me a small laugh. SNL’s skit about Jlin was a pretty good attempt at satirizing the situation.
But all this got me to think, that maybe it is impossible for there to be complete racial tolerance in this country. The united states is one of the few countries with a lot of different minorities living together. It is impossible to not see color, as they say. Obviously in metropolises, like LA or NYC, these minorities tend to try to live together but even then it doesn’t work out THAAAAT well. I won’t even get into some of the backwards racist cities and towns I’ve been to in this country. As an American, I have come to accept that even my grandkids will face this type of treatment. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like it but the way to “earn” the respect of other minorities is to be like Jlin. I’m not talking about his ethics and his faith but rather, its his story of not giving up and bust your ass every time you have the opportunity to do so. He don’t talk a lot of game but he definitely backs it up. He is making the most of his time and maybe that is what we should be inspired by.
For the Asian Americans that are on that Jeremy Lin binge, do what you do but if you guys are really fans, then you would support him no matter what. You should ride or die with him no matter how much he rises and falls. I guarantee you he is gonna hit a slump. He is gonna put “sub-par” numbers sooner or later. Let’s not get all crazy because he dunked with no one in the lane. Stop being trend whores. Where was the support when he was riding the bench in Golden State or Houston? He strung together 8 good games and all of a sudden people are making tshirts and scouring youtube for his highlights. Your bandwagon fandom actually bothers me. People that don’t watch sports are now arguing with me on the proper way to run a pick and roll. Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit. Don’t tell me he has scored the most points out of anyone in the first 8 games as a starter. The stat is skewed ! Don’t even dare to say that he is best player in the NBA or that he is greater than Kobe, Lebron, Wade, and other perennial allstars. Just let the kid play and enjoy it. Root for him all you want but don’t deify him.
I wish Jlin all the best and hopefully he secured a starting spot on an NBA roster so that he can continue to do what he loves. In all honesty, that is what I see as his biggest accomplishment. That and the last second shot again Toronto cuz that was pretty fucking dope.
