[ IMAGES: Images ON turn off | ACCOUNT: User Status is LOCKED why? ]

Did Racism Keep Jeremy Lin Down?
Author Thread
FlipPoker
Posts: 20083
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 4/15/2011
Member: #3526

2/14/2012  10:49 AM
I don't like to play the race card, but it astonishing that Lin went undiscovered for so long.

Did Racism Keep Jeremy Lin Down? Fan View
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-10961964

Featured Sports Writer, Yahoo! Contributor Network - Staff Writer, Buckets Over Broadway - Twitter @FlipPoker
AUTOADVERT
Bonn1997
Posts: 58654
Alba Posts: 2
Joined: 2/2/2004
Member: #581
USA
2/14/2012  10:55 AM
It's hard to imagine any objective analysis of his play being the reason he went undrafted and kept getting cut.
MarburyAnd1Crossover
Posts: 23120
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 10/24/2011
Member: #3650

2/14/2012  10:59 AM    LAST EDITED: 2/14/2012  10:59 AM
It's because you don't see Asians balling like this very often. You can call this racism, but that's just how it is.

When Petrovic came over in the late 80s, no one thought Europeans could ball. But he paved the way for Kukoc, Radja, Divac, and eventually Dirk winning the MVP and the Finals MVP.

What I'm saying is, no one went out and said "I hate Asians so I will work hard to keep this kid out", it's simply because no one is used to seeing Asians ball hard like Lin, so their brains don't have the connections established which would allow them to see an Asian baller as a viable option for dropping the buckets.

Yea, effectively, you can call it racism, but it's not because someone went out of their way to stop Asian ballers from balling.

I'm sure there are a ton of guys playing in China, for example, that could make an impact in the NBA, it was just a matter of time until someone like Lin came along to blow the floodgates open.

Carmelo Anthony is ANTI-BASKETBALL
Bonn1997
Posts: 58654
Alba Posts: 2
Joined: 2/2/2004
Member: #581
USA
2/14/2012  11:07 AM
MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:It's because you don't see Asians balling like this very often. You can call this racism, but that's just how it is.

When Petrovic came over in the late 80s, no one thought Europeans could ball. But he paved the way for Kukoc, Radja, Divac, and eventually Dirk winning the MVP and the Finals MVP.

What I'm saying is, no one went out and said "I hate Asians so I will work hard to keep this kid out", it's simply because no one is used to seeing Asians ball hard like Lin, so their brains don't have the connections established which would allow them to see an Asian baller as a viable option for dropping the buckets.

Yea, effectively, you can call it racism, but it's not because someone went out of their way to stop Asian ballers from balling.

I'm sure there are a ton of guys playing in China, for example, that could make an impact in the NBA, it was just a matter of time until someone like Lin came along to blow the floodgates open.


That would be what's called overt racism. I highly doubt that occurred.
MarburyAnd1Crossover
Posts: 23120
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 10/24/2011
Member: #3650

2/14/2012  11:07 AM
Bonn1997 wrote:
MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:It's because you don't see Asians balling like this very often. You can call this racism, but that's just how it is.

When Petrovic came over in the late 80s, no one thought Europeans could ball. But he paved the way for Kukoc, Radja, Divac, and eventually Dirk winning the MVP and the Finals MVP.

What I'm saying is, no one went out and said "I hate Asians so I will work hard to keep this kid out", it's simply because no one is used to seeing Asians ball hard like Lin, so their brains don't have the connections established which would allow them to see an Asian baller as a viable option for dropping the buckets.

Yea, effectively, you can call it racism, but it's not because someone went out of their way to stop Asian ballers from balling.

I'm sure there are a ton of guys playing in China, for example, that could make an impact in the NBA, it was just a matter of time until someone like Lin came along to blow the floodgates open.


That would be what's called overt racism. I highly doubt that occurred.

What are you saying occurred?

Carmelo Anthony is ANTI-BASKETBALL
MarburyAnd1Crossover
Posts: 23120
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 10/24/2011
Member: #3650

2/14/2012  11:09 AM
If it were the result of a malicious plot to keep Asians out of the hoops game, you would not see this type of positive reaction to Lin's explosion of bucket dropping.
Carmelo Anthony is ANTI-BASKETBALL
Bonn1997
Posts: 58654
Alba Posts: 2
Joined: 2/2/2004
Member: #581
USA
2/14/2012  11:12 AM    LAST EDITED: 2/14/2012  11:13 AM
MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:
Bonn1997 wrote:
MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:It's because you don't see Asians balling like this very often. You can call this racism, but that's just how it is.

When Petrovic came over in the late 80s, no one thought Europeans could ball. But he paved the way for Kukoc, Radja, Divac, and eventually Dirk winning the MVP and the Finals MVP.

What I'm saying is, no one went out and said "I hate Asians so I will work hard to keep this kid out", it's simply because no one is used to seeing Asians ball hard like Lin, so their brains don't have the connections established which would allow them to see an Asian baller as a viable option for dropping the buckets.

Yea, effectively, you can call it racism, but it's not because someone went out of their way to stop Asian ballers from balling.

I'm sure there are a ton of guys playing in China, for example, that could make an impact in the NBA, it was just a matter of time until someone like Lin came along to blow the floodgates open.


That would be what's called overt racism. I highly doubt that occurred.

What are you saying occurred?


Basically the same thing you said, which would be a form of racism (probably called "covert" or "implicit"). Racism refers to treating people differently because of their race, not to doing so intentionally, having bad intentions, or being a bad person. The public often misuses the term to refer to only forms of racism with malicious intent.
jrodmc
Posts: 32927
Alba Posts: 50
Joined: 11/24/2004
Member: #805
USA
2/14/2012  11:14 AM
Wow, and I thought conspiracy theories were specifically the domain of right wingnuts like me. I mean, Obama is only president because he's really Clinton's love child by Ayn Rand, right?

The victim mentality in this country is so ingrained it's amazing the earth keeps rotating.

misterearl
Posts: 38786
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 11/16/2004
Member: #799
USA
2/14/2012  11:19 AM    LAST EDITED: 2/14/2012  11:33 AM
Ballin' While Yellow

One reason Jeremy Lin was held back was because of the infantile practice of making player comparisons. Since there was no prior model for Jeremy Lin that fit the academic, athletic or racial profile - his future as an NBA player was doubted at every stop. Yo', how many street ballers (which Lin is) hail from Palo Alto?

Playing behind Steph Curry, Monta Ellis and Charles Jenkins did not help either.

once a knick always a knick
thejerk
Posts: 20457
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 7/14/2005
Member: #962
2/14/2012  11:31 AM
Probably
Allanfan20
Posts: 35947
Alba Posts: 50
Joined: 1/16/2004
Member: #542
USA
2/14/2012  11:40 AM
The Knicks picked him up after the Boston game, I believe. He wasn't able to even get on the practice court, according to MDA, because he was focused on getting Bibby, Shump and Douglas going. Even MDA admitted he was ignorant in this situation. Whether it's true or not, I have no clue.
“Whenever I’m about to do something, I think ‘Would an idiot do that?’ and if they would, I do NOT do that thing.”- Dwight Schrute
GustavBahler
Posts: 42810
Alba Posts: 15
Joined: 7/12/2010
Member: #3186

2/14/2012  11:42 AM
I don't know. I do know that Lin has handled all the attention, negative and positive, very well.
jrodmc
Posts: 32927
Alba Posts: 50
Joined: 11/24/2004
Member: #805
USA
2/14/2012  11:59 AM
Allanfan20 wrote:The Knicks picked him up after the Boston game, I believe. He wasn't able to even get on the practice court, according to MDA, because he was focused on getting Bibby, Shump and Douglas going. Even MDA admitted he was ignorant in this situation. Whether it's true or not, I have no clue.

MDA has been quoted as saying that Lin "came out of nowhere."

So we have someone in Lin who:
Has his coach humbled and at the same time happy that people are seeing his O-system for what it is.
A player who's handling the hype like a normal human being, for once, who's not flouting his instant fame, but who continues to talk about the game, his teammates and his coach [thankfully, he's got no reason to talk about Dolan or IT]
Superstar teammates who are publicly laying aside huge portions of ego and are acknowledging this players talent and impact.

This could be the one magical year where:
The Giants win the Superbowl [check]
The Knicks win the Finals
The Yankees win the Series [pencil check]

I love life. Really.

Andrew
Posts: 26600
Alba Posts: 2
Joined: 7/24/2001
Member: #1
USA
2/14/2012  12:21 PM
Q: Did Racism Keep Jeremy Lin Down?
A: Doubtful, more so the emphasis on individual play and athleticism in player evaluation.

Q: Did the author of this article write it so he could get web page views and not because there was any merit to the argument?
A: Most definitely

PURE KNICKS LOVE
nixluva
Posts: 56258
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 10/5/2004
Member: #758
USA
2/14/2012  12:37 PM
Perhaps before he got to the NBA he faced some early doubts, went underrated due to his race but he wasn't actually prohibited from playing, which is true racism.

MDA talks in coach speak. He knew that Lin had talent or else he wouldn't have asked Glen to bring him to the team. What he didn't know is the extent of his ability to run the team on the NBA level. We saw how shaky Lin looked when he 1st got here. He did some things that gave evidence of his talent, but that's a far stretch from executing on a high level against starting NBA lineups. Lin was primarily brought in as injury insurance. So yeah he was low on the depth chart.

People keep thinking that Lin was sent down as some kind of punishment or cuz they thought he sucked, but the stint in the D league was with the purpose of giving him some playing time and a chance to learn the system better, which it did. IMO I don't think they would've let Lin go without seeing him play. The way TD and Bibby were playing, it only made sense to me that they would at least give him a shot to see what he could do and after they saw his D League explosion it gave them more confidence to do that. With each game he got more comfortable and showed a bit more, so I think it was handled about as well as it could given the lack of a training camp or practices to really assess Lin earlier.

DrAlphaeus
Posts: 23751
Alba Posts: 10
Joined: 12/19/2007
Member: #1781

2/14/2012  12:55 PM
jrodmc wrote:
Allanfan20 wrote:The Knicks picked him up after the Boston game, I believe. He wasn't able to even get on the practice court, according to MDA, because he was focused on getting Bibby, Shump and Douglas going. Even MDA admitted he was ignorant in this situation. Whether it's true or not, I have no clue.

MDA has been quoted as saying that Lin "came out of nowhere."

So we have someone in Lin who:
Has his coach humbled and at the same time happy that people are seeing his O-system for what it is.
A player who's handling the hype like a normal human being, for once, who's not flouting his instant fame, but who continues to talk about the game, his teammates and his coach [thankfully, he's got no reason to talk about Dolan or IT]
Superstar teammates who are publicly laying aside huge portions of ego and are acknowledging this players talent and impact.

This could be the one magical year where:
The Giants win the Superbowl [check]
The Knicks win the Finals
The Yankees win the Series [pencil check]

I love life. Really.

Let's go Mets?

Baba Booey 2016 — "It's Silly Season"
VDesai
Posts: 42751
Alba Posts: 44
Joined: 10/28/2003
Member: #477
USA
2/14/2012  12:58 PM
I don't know that you call it racism, but scouts have an inhernet bias when they look at players. Moneyball is a great example - scouts look at body type, background etc. more than they look at production.

Jeremy Lin, being an Asian American PG, didn't fit the scouts prototype of a PG. Otherwise, he should've been a no brainer to go to Stanford in his backyard. Instead of going to a major conference, he ends up in the Ivy League at Harvard. Now you add another layer- he doesn't have the background of your traditional PG, and he's at the ivies. NBA scouts are not gonna be jumping up and down to see him.

Through all of that he still plays well enough to play past the biases and make the NBA. Once in the NBA, it came down to finding the right fit and opportunity as it does for most players. This was the perfect system for him to thrive in, and he seized the opportunity when given. Sometimes good players don't do that on their first try.

Bippity10
Posts: 13999
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 1/26/2004
Member: #574
2/14/2012  1:02 PM    LAST EDITED: 2/14/2012  1:02 PM
misterearl wrote:Ballin' While Yellow

One reason Jeremy Lin was held back was because of the infantile practice of making player comparisons. Since there was no prior model for Jeremy Lin that fit the academic, athletic or racial profile - his future as an NBA player was doubted at every stop. Yo', how many street ballers (which Lin is) hail from Palo Alto?

Playing behind Steph Curry, Monta Ellis and Charles Jenkins did not help either.

Agreed. Race played a part in this but I think it's only part of the issue. I htink it's more about perception than racism. As Earl said, an Asian guy from Harvard did not fit the profile so people assumed it would not work. Many jumped to a conclusion without analyzing. If Lin does well, the next Asian guy from Harvard will have an easier road.

I just hope that people will like me
umynot
Posts: 21465
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 7/4/2008
Member: #2093
USA
2/14/2012  1:12 PM
I would think his race definitely played a role.

He is first EVER Asian American starting PG in NBA. Ever

So just by that alone u have to assume that it was hard to compare him to anyone
Must of been difficult for scouts to look past his race not only cause there has never
Been another like him but because we are in an era of super athletic PGs in the game right now.

all that being said I don't believe it was racism

Racism is malicious and hateful this case I believe is ignorance way more then
racism!

I think all the neglet motivated him into a better player either way!

Also I also believe on Bobcats Lin the Master would be much less a success then he is
In this system!

KNICKS on the way UP!!!
misterearl
Posts: 38786
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 11/16/2004
Member: #799
USA
2/14/2012  1:14 PM
Bippity10 wrote:Agreed. Race played a part in this but I think it's only part of the issue. I htink it's more about perception than racism. As Earl said, an Asian guy from Harvard did not fit the profile so people assumed it would not work. Many jumped to a conclusion without analyzing. If Lin does well, the next Asian guy from Harvard will have an easier road.

bippity - think of it this way. Assuming Jeremy Lin would not work is not far off from saying Lin and Carmelo cannot work. There is no precedent for an Asian guy from Harvard teaming up with a Syracuse Orangeman from West Baltimore.

Experts don't know jack about the future.

once a knick always a knick
Did Racism Keep Jeremy Lin Down?

©2001-2025 ultimateknicks.comm All rights reserved. About Us.
This site is not affiliated with the NY Knicks or the National Basketball Association in any way.
You may visit the official NY Knicks web site by clicking here.

All times (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time.

Terms of Use and Privacy Policy