SlimChin wrote:good defensive teams are starting to trap him which gets him into trouble. i wonder, is the coaching staff trying to figure something out for this? and i also see his teammates standing around when the trap comes.

Naw, they just like eating and drinking beer. Fans know better and its up to us to offer suggestions cuz we all know they use the internet to get ideas!

In relality Lin gets it done most of the times but we gonna remember the few times he gets nailed. Part of it is him not seeing it sooner. He will in time. Its like a QB reading the blitz. If they do it the defense leaves itself volunerable but the QB must execute.

Ball movement is the key. YOu saw some very good plays resulting in easy baskets by Amare and Melo when it all goes right.

Just not all the time.

Lin spoiled us in the "insanity" and teams are jacked to stop him.

They are trying to beat the snot out of him now.

Tune in and find out!

TripleThreat wrote:

Nalod wrote:Does racism play into any of this?

IMHO, sure it does. I would posit that there are major segments of middle class America that have no interest in the current NBA and its product because it is predominately black and it often espouses the rap/urban culture in it's marketing scheme ( though Stern has desperately tried to distance himself from that type of appeal)

A few weeks ago, I saw Jeremy Lin being discussed on The View, a show designed for women and female viewers. That's HUGE for the NBA and David Stern. The NBA has the greatest number of female mid level executives in their franchises than any other professional American sport. The NBA has to essentially strongarm the networks to keep carrying and showing the ratings nosedive WNBA, that even many women don't want to watch, for the faint hope by Stern and Silver that they can acquire the female viewership that has grown and exploded for the NFL and MLB. When Jeremy Lin gets talked about on The View, that attracts female viewers to the NBA. Sponsors and corporations LOVE female viewership. Why? Women tend to make the major purchasing decisions in their respective households. Women also comprise the largest group of impulse spenders in general. Women also disproportionately, on the average, watch more TV than the average male.

Middle class white America, the bread and butter of the NFL and MLB, I have my doubts, to my opinion, that they are super interested in seeing Stephen Jackson shoot up a night club. Baron Davis gain 40 pounds and jog up and down the court for the Clippers. Sprewell choking his own coach. Gilbert Arenas bringing handguns into his locker room over a card game. Hearing later that his rival is now wanted for murder. Eddy Curry eating his way out of the league. Rip Hamilton staging a sickout because he hates his coach. Often these are happening in cities where the economy has hit that place locally very hard. I would posit many fans are tired of the entitled selfish chucking thug life nature of how the NBA is marketed and seen by the average fan. You have Chris Paul sticking his finger in an owners face, Wade yelling at his commissioner, you have Kobe Bryant and Noah making derogatory remarks against homosexuals. You have Garnett pissing on people with cancer. There is just an unsettling number of NBA players who are PR poison. Fans don't want to buy jerseys to see players they think are scum bags and malcontents. They aren't going to pay for season tickets, they won't buy League Pass, they will just watch the NFL instead.

Lin is a story that mainstream America can root for. He doesn't remind them of the segment of people at work that can't be fired without a lawsuit, or the segment of their neighborhood that is driving down their property value or reminding them of why they have to wait 73 hours at the DMV in line or remind them of who they don't want to see in a dark alley or alone in a parking lot while trying to get home from work or remind them of the perpetual complaining for concession tactic that is used over and over, using race as a shield to justify any kind of behavior at all. Lin is accountable. He's humble. He's hard working. He's non threatening. He is more like the middle class mainstream American fan than the rest of the current NBA. He's the Jackie Robinson right now of the NBA, turning things on their head. Jason Whitlock would have been FIRED for making negative comments about Lin if Whitlock was white and Lin was black, but since Whitlock is black and Lin is Asian, he gets a warning. Lin is worth so much money to the NBA and advertisers and brands now, that they have no choice but to be racially sensitive, not because they want to be, but because it will cost them money.

And here is how it comes down to officiating. Teams have tried trapping and doubling and pressing Lin, but the kid is pesky, he keeps coming, he doesn't back down, he has no fear, he will simply not quit. So now they will resort to beating him. Hacking him. Clubbing him. Hitting him as much as they can because that's what you do when you can't beat a guy clean. And this becomes the story of reverse racism, where the waters get muddy for the networks and the NBA and Stern and the league. Socially speaking and PR wise, blacks can't be racists. Of course they can be racists, but like Whitlock, socially they aren't punished for being racists. Shaq can make mocking comment about Yao Ming and not get suspended, but if Kevin Love or Steve Nash or Yao Ming told Shaq to chill before he dies of hypertension, how would that play out? Suspension. Huge fine. Demands for his banning from the league. Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless screaming into your TV. But Lin is showing that any dominant group, any, will turn on any minority to that group. Put 10 Asian guys on a deserted island with one black guy, how do you think that will play out? Put 10 black guys on a deserted island with one Asian guy, how will that play out? Except no one can say it, no one wants to lose their job or be called a racist or incite some issue for black lobbyists, no one wants to come out and say most NBA players are black and they are going to make Lin suffer because , to many of them, he's not one of them and he has to pay because he's getting all the attention and endorsements and commercial time. Do you think they didn't notice he got his own press conference at the All Star game and every other question any player is asked, no matter how they scored or played is about Lin?

Lin is a printing press for money for the NBA. But they need to protect him. I don't think yet that they fully realize that they need to protect him. I think Stern won't figure it out until every Asian news outlet is showing Lin on the ground after being clotheslined by some angry looking hulking black guy that is angry about Lin getting 25 million in endorsements after having a good 20 game run. And that's the humorous part of it all, no matter what other teams do, the fans and crowd will love Lin and love him more and more. He's the Jackie Robinson of the current NBA, ironically too bad so many of the current black players, aside from Paul Pierce and his own team mate, don't seem to get that.

What do you mean?

Can you please be more clear and verbose next time?

MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:I really doubt the refs have actually made a decision to be harsh on Lin. I've talked to fans of other teams who thought the refs were being very generous with him during the Linsanity run actually.

I've talked to some refs and they all told me they absolutely have it out for him.

NYKBocker wrote:Breen pointed out during the game that the book on Lin and Rubio right now is to hit them hard and often. Timberwolves have already sent tapes to the league complaining about the hits that Rubio is taking. Knicks need to do the same for Lin and get the leagues attention.

some of his teammates not named JJ need to step up and protect Lin with some beef of their own. I don't recall Beaubois getting hit enough.

Lin gets hit by Kidd with a clothesline that hit forehead. Then Kidd yanks Lin's head by grabbing on his hair. Then Mahimi finished Lin off with a knee to the midsection and a push to the floor. All this rough stuff is what is slowing Linsanity down.

EDIT: Look at Dirk pushing Lin on his side while being decapitated by Kidd.

mrKnickShot wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

soundcrib wrote:are the refs tired of linsanity? does he not have the refs' respect? i thought a foul is a foul is a foul regardless of circumstance.

IMHO, the refs have a pretty complicated situation with Jeremy Lin.

First, the league and Stern will point things out to refs but never directly tell them, not anything that can be documented, to officiate a certain way or not for a specific player or team. Nothing that can be construed as "I want this team to advance in the playoffs" and "I want you to job this player" This is so Stern can have complete deniability. I.E. I never said for anyone to do this or that, they did that on their own. What Stern and Stu Jackson will do is make sure any ref who does not toe the line and figure it out, give them what they want without it being said, will not be promoted, will not get raises, will not get playoff work and will eventually be cycled out of the league.

Second, if you are going to be a ref and cheat for Stern ( i.e. favor the players he wants to market, advance the teams he wants to move up for the ratings, and keep nationally televised games close), you can't look like you are cheating anyone. Hence, home teams will always be at an advantage. The way replays are shown and telecasts are done are designed to favor the home team. Stern will not punish refs for keeping the home crowd happy and to not incite problems on replay or the JumboTron during the game. Teams who win all their home games and lose all their road games, their season ticket holders will remember all those home wins. This is how you get them to renew. Esp with so much of the league either tanking or treadmilling or have no hope in hell to win a ring or get better, these teams need all the help they can to retain season ticket holders.

Third, star players will always get calls over non star players, within a pecking order. The average NBA fan tunes in to see the stars, particularly their favorite stars, and that's not going to be fun to pay out the nose to see a game in person if your favorite star player gets fouled out for playing defense in the third quarter. This isn't just an impact on offense, but also on defense. Boston fans pay to see Garnett and Allen and Pierce play, if they hack Lin, part of it is because refs don't want to foul out these players or get them into foul trouble. Game isn't so fun for Celtic faithful if Pierce is on the bench near the end of the game with five fouls and the coach trying to figure out when to put him back in.

Fourth, if your free throw shooting is not predictive, refs can't gauge the impact of giving you free throws to keep a game close. You know Nash will hit 90 plus percent of his free throws. That's reliable. You know Dwight Howard will hit one of two. That's reliable. Lin hits like 70 percent-75 percent. Sometimes he hits two, sometimes he hits one. If he wants better calls, he has to make his free throw shooting more predictive for refs. I'm not saying it's fair or I like it or it's got any integrity to it, but this is how IMHO, the NBA works for superstar calls.

Fifth, Lin is going to have to adjust his game from the road to home. At home, he will get more calls. On the road, to Miami or Boston, it's a different story. On the road he's going to have to shoot more jumpers and let Melo go into isolation more and try to feed Chandler in the post. On the road, you have to be a jump shooting team, this is where refs can't hurt you. You can't get jobbed on a three point attempt. There is no phantom contact they can make up.

Sixth, sadly Lin is going to have flop more. I hate flopping. I hate that so many players do it. But it works, which is why they do it. Lin attracts a lot of non hard core casual fans, who won't see a flop, but will see Lin crash onto the floor, a skinny 23 year old nice Christian Asian boy, with a couple of hulking 6'9 poor educated black guys menacing over him. This is where I agree with another poster, that Lin has to pay some rookie dues, but also D'Antoni has to use the press to protect Lin. All that is needed is for many Asian networks and affiliates to show Lin being hammered over and over by huge black guys, and D'Antoni saying he hopes Lin doesn't get hurt, for the headlines there to say that a bunch of jealous black oversized thugs are beating the hell out of Lin. Lin is worth a billion dollars in marketing potential to the NBA and the foothold to further globalize the game for Stern, do you think he wants the foreign press to run those stories? Good hearted, humble, underdog, who went to the good school and said the right things and is the biggest story in sports is being beaten to a pulp by the thug life wannabe rap star image that Stern has desperately tried to move away from. Stern thinks about the billion dollars, he yells at Silver, who yells at Stu Jackson, who yells at the head of refs, who has no idea what is going on, except that Stern is pissed, he starts yelling, refs worry about losing their raises and perks and then Lin is shooting 10 free throws a game again.

Seventh, D'Antoni is going to have to send Bill Walker out there to throw a forearm in someone's face. Take the technical and get refs to WARN everyone. Then after that, every hack on Lin looks like retaliation , not the standard game plan that it has become. Once the refs warn everyone, they have to enforce that to keep their authority, and Lin gets more calls. And if they don't, it will show up on the JumboTron, for all to see in the highlights, the refs warning both benches and then Lin getting hacked to death. The foreign press picks it up and now the league won't do anything to protect Lin against the common thuggery that has driven away a good chunk of Caucasian, Asian and female potential viewers in the past.

Eighth, eventually Lin is going to have to stick someone in the face. These other players are not falling out of Mensa meetings. Most of them are poorly educated and poorly socialized and it is a hazing process for a rookie. They want to see how much they can hit him and get away with it. Again, this is how the current thug life rap star glitz marketing self promoting chucker NBA behaves. Some players just won't respect him until he draws blood. IMHO, Lin hasn't figured out yet that the refs can't and won't foul him out on defense, they'll get him in foul trouble or toss him if he's blatant or do it at the end of a game that won't matter or isn't close, but in some games, some close ones and national TV ones, they aren't going to call everything. That's when he can smack around players who aren't as marketable. He can kick, jab, elbow, knee, kidney punch, spit, pull and hammer on a Norris Cole or Mario Chalmers. He can't do that to a Wade or a Ray Allen.

I love the Lin story, not only is he an underdog, but he throws the entire reverse racism NBA culture on it's heels. In the NBA, he's the minority. In the NBA, he's the novelty. In the NBA, he has to prove he's twice as good and work four times as hard to get the same credit as some thug life yo who can dunk over a car. The sad thing is Lin wants to play team ball, but the league is not designed for team ball, the league is designed for marketing and profit above all else, and if you want a clean game or clean calls, you have to lobby and manipulate and politic for them like Phil Jackson did.

Lin has to learn to play the "other game" in the NBA that matters for his success. He is right now the most marketable athlete in the entire world and he has to use that leverage and the love of the crowd to his advantage.

Can you please elaborate?