The unforeseen rise of New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin has captured the attention of more than just the sports news media. His story of being a former Ivy-league star from Harvard to an undrafted rookie trying to survive NBA roster cuts to exciting New York Knicks fans with point production and productivity at the point guard position has been well chronicled. Lin's rise to fame has even included being one of the main stories on the cover of a recent issue of Time Magazine. The publicity around Lin has been so extensive that terms involving his last name like 'Linsanity' have had sports fans wondering if Jeremy Lin is the basketball equivalent of the NFL's 'Tebowmania' a few short months ago.
Of course, one of the undisputable reasons why the Jeremy Lin story has received so much attention is because of his ethnicity. It is definitely not the only reason as Lin's production at point guard for the huge media market in New York are two significant reasons as well but that Lin is performing at a high level in a predominantly African American league as an Asian American makes the story that much more interesting. Although the modern professional sports arena has long been considered an area in American society where job production supersedes job discrimination due to race or ethnicity, the Jeremy Lin story has shown that even in sports that racist notions or thoughts can still remain.
There are some thoughts that Jeremy Lin went undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft after a successful four year career at Harvard in part due to his race. U.S. Secretary of Education and former Harvard basketball player Arne Duncan feels that may have been the case while adding that Lin "was underappreciated and underrecognized. The fact that he's Asian American, those two things are absolutely linked." That NBA scouts and general managers would succumb to that type of thinking about Lin in a league that has received high marks for being progressive in hiring people of color is distressing. Of course, Lin's professional success drew criticism earlier this month from boxing star Floyd Mayweather Jr. who suggested on Twitter that Lin's ethnicity was the main reason for the media attention. As mentioned earlier, Lin's ethnicity is part of his story but not the main part as his success for the Knicks coincided with the team collecting wins after a disappointing start to their season.
Racist statements about Jeremy Lin's ethnicity have been an ugly and unfortunate part of his story, even by the media as ESPN recently had to apologize for a terrible and racist headline on its mobile website following Lin's not-so-successful game against the New Orleans Hornets. ESPN has since fired the writer who wrote the headline. Last Saturday, Saturday Night Live aired a skit with sports broadcasters making quips about Lin's ethnicity that was either thought-provoking satire or sophomoric buffoonery based on one's sense of humor.
The best part of the Jeremy Lin story when it comes to his ethnicity is that it has inspired Taiwanese and Chinese people overseas to support Lin's success. His success may inspire other young Asian American basketball players to pursue their dreams of getting to the NBA. The humble and personable Jeremy Lin has earned the success he is getting. His ethnicity is just part of his story and should remain a positive one while he battles still prevalent stereotypes in today's society.
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