Jeremy Lin: Continuing to Walk the Walk

Time, February 27, 2012

Nine years have passed since Jeremy Lin became an international sensation for the New York Knicks. His star turn lasted less than two months, but even today followers of the NBA remember that one brief shining moment when an undrafted Harvard graduate not only made an NBA roster but was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated for two weeks in a row.

After the Knicks he became a journeyman NBA player, then went to the Beijing Ducks for a year. He's now playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the "G League" (the NBA's version of baseball's minor leagues).

Jeremy Lin has largely been quiet about the racist insults he's experienced throughout his college and professional career but last week spoke against physical assaults on Asian-Americans.

Lin, who’s playing for Santa Cruz at the G League bubble near Orlando in hopes of resuscitating his NBA career, took to Instagram on Thursday in response to a recent surge in violence against Asian Americans. In the post, he offered examples of racism that he has personally experienced.

“Being a 9 year NBA veteran doesn’t protect me from being called ‘coronavirus’ on the court,” Lin wrote.

The G League is investigating who might have said "coronavirus" to Jeremy Lin, but he said he is “not naming or shaming anyone.”

Your humble blogger, who has sometimes been on the receiving end of such remarks, firmly believes that the world is a better place because over 90% (just a wild guess) of those insulted let the comments slide. The Internet now gives us the ability to ruin a career and personal life because of spoken indiscretions. Outing these speakers--there's no question they're in the wrong--is a weapon to be wielded with care.

Jeremy Lin continues to follow his faith's principle of turning the other cheek, a rare example in a world where publicizing the sins of others is lauded and rewarded.

Where is He Now?

Three years after "Linsanity" Jeremy Lin has settled into the role of backup point guard with the Charlotte Hornets. As the experts constantly reminded us in 2012, Jeremy Lin's middle-of-the-road NBA talent caught lightning when injuries gave Jeremy a chance to show off his passing skills in New York, the center of the media universe.

Jeremy Lin's success made a few players resentful, but he showed humor and spiritual gracefulness as he descended from heights impossible to sustain.

He maintains a good relationship with many in the NBA; witness current and former teammates who appeared in his recent video.



As we said three years ago, "this young man has exhibited such a high degree of media savvy that we expect to see him around long after his playing days are over."

Where Is He Now

The Jeremy Lin phenomenon has moved overseas while the NBA is on break:



It's unlikely that Linsanity will ever rise to its previous heights now that he's playing for the Houston Rockets. That said, this young man has exhibited such a high degree of media savvy that we expect to see him around long after his playing days are over.

Safe Haven

Prohibition taught us that the costs and side effects of enforcement can outweigh the cost of the misbehavior itself. Legalization of so-called "victimless" crimes is one solution. Another is the creation of red light districts, safe havens for otherwise proscribed behavior.

Comedy is a safe haven for racism, sexism, gay-bashing (non-physical), and general cultural insensitivity. Our human weakness demands that we have this outlet.

Last night's Saturday Night Live opening has it all (the topic is Jeremy Lin, naturally): Asian stereotypes and black stereotypes, all leavened with hypocritical sanctimony.

And yes, I laughed too.

Boomerang

ESPN screenshot captured by Larry Brown Sports

There's still too much racism in America, and that's not big news. The insults sting less over time, though, because of the knowledge that the epithets boomerang far worse upon the speaker than upon the target. People are free to speak, insult, and mock, but they are not free from the consequences of speech. Whoever wrote the ESPN headline is likely to get fired or at least reprimanded.

Most Americans have curtailed the use of words (e.g., coon, chink, fairy, retarded) whose secondary meanings are considered offensive to certain groups. (Even "niggardly" is now off limits because it just sounds too much like another word.)

It must also be said that there's too much political correctness and hyper-sensitivity. Allowances need to be made for the age of the speaker. Older people who grew up using now-objectionable words and phrases should be cut some slack. It's not easy to change habits built up over a lifetime. To the offended: please relax, the language will soon pass from the scene.

Back to ESPN, however. It's a media company whose products are images, words, music, and moving pictures. It won't do to say, disingenuously, that "chink in the armor" is a venerable and appropriate phrase. In the context of the first Knicks loss with Jeremy Lin as a starter, the headline writer conveyed the double meaning he intended. He must have really fallen in love with his own wittiness, because the boomerang will be painful.

[Update - 2/19 ESPN statement: “We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again,” the network said in a statement. “We regret and apologize for this mistake."]

[Update - 2/20: After ESPN fired him, the headline writer apologized and said that he meant no insult, having used the phrase "at least 100 times."]

It Stinks

This post is about one of my worst stock investments.

New York sports fans are miffed about the contract dispute between Time Warner and MSG Network. In order to get their fix of "Lin-sanity" about two million viewers have had to go to sports bars or friends' homes with DirecTV or Cablevision subcriptions.

Dialogue from today's CNBC Squawk Box:

CNBC anchor David Faber: "If you have Time Warner, by the way, you're going to have to find [Knicks games] on the radio. I had to actually go out and buy an AM radio. It's been 48 days, 17 games, that have so far been missed by fans of the Knicks."

CNBC anchor Melissa Lee: "David, where do you even buy a radio these days...Radio Shack?"

David Faber: "Yeah, yeah, you can go to Radio Shack, you gotta go back into the back room." [Far away gesture with hands]

Melissa Lee: "Dust them off? Cobwebs?" [Brushing away motion]

David Faber: "It's 1980's, 1990's inventory." [Hilarity ensues.]

I feel bad enough about my Radio Shack investment. Now it's the subject of gratuitous mockery on CNBC. (I bought some RSH last May because I thought that they were one of the few electronics retailers who knew what they were doing. Boy, was I wrong.)

RSH has dropped nearly 60% since I bought it.

The comment about radios in the back room reminds me of an old joke about accounting inventory methods:

FIFO - First-in, first-out
LIFO - Last-in, first-out
FISH - First-in, still here

Not laughing so hard when it happens to you.

Jeremy Lin Quantitative Analysis

The WSJ analyzes the various factors that have made the Jeremy Lin story an international phenomenon. As a public service we have re-sorted the list using the Journal's scoring:

Chinese/Taiwanese/American background                  25%
The novelty of Lin's Harvard roots                     18%
The fact that he happened to land in New York          13%
Injuries to Knicks players and faulty 
    scouting of other teams                            10%
Sleeping on his brother's couch                         9%
A last name that's a headline writer's dream come true  8%
His Tebow-like religious conviction                     5%
Making his debut during the post-Super Bowl malaise     4%
The phenom-amplifying power of social media             3%
The Knicks' schedule has some lousy teams               3%
When asked, Kobe Bryant said he knew nothing about him  1%
Lin's struts, head nods and tongue waggles              1%

                                                      100%

The article is clearly tongue-in-cheek, so one ought not to be too critical. That said, I believe the importance of #4, "faulty scouting", to the story has been under-rated and even misnamed.

Throughout his life, not just in the NBA, Jeremy Lin was overlooked. Stanford, UCLA, and other March madness schools wouldn't recruit him out of Palo Alto High. He was undrafted by the NBA though he was all-Ivy and helped Harvard beat college powerhouse UConn.

The real story, in my humble opinion, is his persistence in the face of adversity. He refused to abandon his chosen path, though his talents were not recognized by most basketball experts. In a time when we wonder if it still exists, Jeremy Lin shows that the American dream is still alive.

Not A Jeremy Lin Blog, But...

The Jeremy Lin story has gotten even bigger with the 38 points he scored in the Knicks' 92-85 win over the Lakers on Friday night in Madison Square Garden.

Sports experts would not have been surprised if the Lin express would have come to a screeching halt--or at least been slowed down a bit--when the Knicks played five-time world champ Kobe Bryant. Instead, Jeremy Lin scored the most points by a Knick this season and nailed baskets at critical junctures in the game.

Adding to the luster of his performance was the fact that the game was on national TV. In recent weeks we have seen instances of choking by young athletes when their big moment arrives. Jeremy Lin is grabbing opportunity by the neck and riding it to the moon.

[Update - 2/11: What do you expect from a Dragon? It's his (our) year!

“Of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, the Dragon is the most special, as it is a mystical being rather than an earthly animal....In this context that means we can expect grand things this year. Bigger than life is very much a Dragon thing.”]

[Update - 2/12: He showed signs of exhaustion after a grueling five games in seven days, plus defenses that have learned to bang him harder as he drives inside, but Jeremy Lin again led the Knicks to victory in Minnesota last night:

Although Lin scored 20 points in the Knicks’ 100-98 victory over Minnesota for his fifth consecutive 20-point game, he struggled to do so. Lin, the newest Knicks sensation, shot 8 for 24 from the field, had six turnovers, and managed only 5 points in the second half.

But he still became the first player in N.B.A. history to post at least 20 points and 7 assists in his first four starts...]

Jeremy Lin

We remarked below how "unknown" point guard Jeremy Lin has risen to the top of the sports universe this week by leading the New York Knickerbockers to victories over the Jazz and the Nets. He did it again last night against the Washington Wizards:

Jeremy Lin, the undrafted Harvard economics graduate, has now played 111 meaningful minutes of NBA basketball since the weekend. He's scored a combined 76 points, become a national phenomenon, won three games and blown a few minds.

He is part Steve Nash, part Paul Bunyan and late Wednesday night, after the Knicks beat the Washington Wizards 107-93, Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni called him "for real." So stop rubbing your eyes—it's not a dream.

Three attributes widely regarded as positives in the rest of society--Harvard degree, Asian-American, 6'3" height--were obstacles to Jeremy Lin's acceptance by NBA teams; it is an understatement to say that expectations for him were low.

His underdog status, his performance on the biggest media stage during the quiet period between the Super Bowl and the NCAA tournament, his sincere understated Christianity, and his growing international (especially Asian) following make Jeremy Lin a public relations dream.

Go East, Young Man

Chico, California native Aaron Rodgers was a star quarterback for Cal-Berkeley, but the 49ers chose Alex Smith ahead of him. Aaron Rodgers went to Green Bay and became the NFL and Super Bowl MVP.

San Mateo-born Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl five times (won 3, lost 2) and has been named the league- and Super-Bowl MVP on multiple occasions.

Vallejo High graduate CC Sabathia won the Cy Young award and signed a seven-year $161 million contract with the New York Yankees in 2009. That is the largest contract ever granted to a pitcher.

The latest successful Northern California export is Jeremy Lin, who played basketball at Palo Alto High. Stanford didn't try to recruit him, and Jeremy became an economics major at Harvard, where he was an all-Ivy basketballer in his junior and senior years. Undrafted by the NBA, he played occasionally in 2010 for the Golden State Warriors, who waived him in 2011. When the New York Knicks' starting guards couldn't play because of injury and family tragedy, Jeremy led the Knicks to victory over the Nets and Jazz. Two games do not a season or career make, but the signs are promising.

Mark 6:3-4 "Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor."