<p>Anyone else here following this–the emergence of Jeremy Lin? He did it again, tonight, hitting a three at the buzzer to break a tie in a game in which the Knicks were trailing by as much as 17 points until the very end.</p>
<p>His story has many wrinkles including being all state on a Palo Alto high school team that won the state championship, and brilliant Stanford didn’t even give him a whiff. Ironically, his back court mate, Landry Fields, played at Stanford. So the Knicks have an elite back court–at least academically. </p>
<p>I wonder if he was overlooked, as an Asian, in the same that a previous generation wouldn’t let African Americans become quarterbacks. </p>
<p>For a New York sports fan this is a dream where my Super Bowl Champion Giants passed the baton to the Knicks. Unfortunately, this will eventually end in the nightmare known as the Mets.</p>
<p>Watched the state championship game on tv where he played for Palo Alto against the powerhouse, Mater Dei, and I will never forget the thumping they administered to the big boys at Mater Dei. I was surprised he was not recruited by any Division 1 schools. Basketball coaches and general managers are probably guilty of stereotyping players, as it is an easy way to winnow the list of available candidates.</p>
<p>My H and two of my Ds were at the game last night and enjoyed watching Lin, even though the Raptors lost. They said that there were a lot more Asians in the crowd than would usually be the case at a game. It will be exciting to see how long he can keep up this level of play, and although I don’t believe for a minute that his success is “a miracle from God”, it sure is fun to watch. :)</p>
<p>Harvard is a division 1 school (ranked 25th in the country as of last week) and the Knicks are a professional basketball team, the latter has been debatable for several years, however.</p>
<p>I am enjoying Linsanity. As a former DI Ivy athlete, I think Ivy sports are highly underappreciated! I just hope Lin can remain the fine young man he appears to be. Kudos to his parents - he seems bright, humble, sincere, and family and faith orientated. Fun story and I am thrilled for his success. What a lot of attention and pressure on his young shoulders!</p>
<p>Very interesting commentary on my local talk radio. The facts that his parents come from Taiwan and that he is an outspoken Christian are making him less of a Chinese media darling than one might expect. I don’t want to open a political or religious debate here, but do find it fascinating how his story is being covered in Asia.</p>
<p>The traditional basketball prowess of Harvard is pretty debatable too. It’s only within the past two or three years that Harvard has gotten good. They have qualified for the NCAA tournament exactly once in their entire history (in 1946), and the number of Harvard players who ever went on to play in the NBA, including Lin, can literally be counted on one hand. </p>
<p>So there is a lot of excitement around Harvard’s recent success. Excitement and trepidation:</p>
<p>(Prays) "O Lord, let not this enthusiasm turn out to be hollow. Let not our many cheers be in vain. Let not this improvement in Harvard’s basketball prowess be due to violating NCAA recruiting rules or to lowering the academic admissions standards for players to embarrassing levels.</p>
<p>Let it be that our stars have chosen to play for the Crimson that they may obtain a first-rate education and not that they (or their parents) received payments that were hidden from our eyes. In other words, O Lord, no scandals. Please, no…"</p>
<p>Yes, coming out of high school and again in college, it would appear that Lin was a victim of stereotyping and poor judgment, which happens a lot in big-time sports. I’d sure like to hear the excuses from the NBA general managers who overlooked him or let him go. The other day the Lakers general manager said that he had asked about Lin when he was at Houston, but the Lakers coach says he himself never heard of the guy. Reliable NBA experts attribute Lin’s success to the fact that he is now with a team that has a system that maximizes Lin’s talents, unlike his original team the Bay Area Warriors, or his last team, the Houston Rockets. I tend to agree that if the Lakers had signed signed Lin, he never would have seen the light of day off the bench.</p>
<p>As for the crowd at the Toronto game last night, the radio broadcaster said it was a long-planned “Asia Night” at the arena. Incidentally, the same visiting NY radio play-by-play man made a real silly goof when he said “the Asian-American population in Toronto is about 11%.” Wha? I’m sure Canadians of all stripes weren’t pleased about this particular Yank’s lack of anthropological, geographic or demographic knowledge, LOL.</p>
<p>Lake Washington, you may be right about him not seeing the light of day off the bench, but the Lakers could use a point guard like Lin who can shoot and penetrate the paint and dish to his teammates for easy baskets. One of the many problems with the Lakers today is the lack of a true point guard.</p>
<p>Yup–that’s my 2012 sports trajectory, in a nutshell. And I’m going to enjoy every second of Superbowl celebration and Lin-sanity, knowing that my favorite sport is going to kick my heart around again in a couple months.</p>
<p>It’s a bench-to-superstar story. Who doesn’t like that? IMHO, it’s got nothing to do with his being Asian, but lots to do with his being from Harvard.</p>
<p>Harvard lost to Princeton a couple days ago.That’ll probably drop them, for now, out of the top 25.</p>
<p>Lin to me looks like the real deal. Hasn’t been long enough though…eventually they’ll figure out how to guard him. Still, for the moment I’m enjoying this (though I remain a 76ers fan).</p>
<p>^^^ I think Harvard has something to do with it, but so does his being Asian… maybe more so. Very few Asians in the major league US big 3 (a few mostly pitchers, not much NFL or NBA) with a large worldwide Asian market hungry for this kind of success story. Re Yao Ming</p>
<p>Harvard’s loss to Princeton doesn’t help them, but both have a pretty good team. Each has a win over Florida State this year, which has wins over UNC and Duke.</p>
<p>Lin is pretty interesting and there really isn’t any way for the league to adjust to him. He has very good skills and is able to get the ball to where it should optimally be. This is an underrated skill. Currently, his situation reminds me of the moneyball story in baseball where the guys who are charged with evaluating talent are often not so smart.</p>
<p>^^Princeton’s big year was last year. Their chances of getting into the NCAA tournament again this year are pretty low. Currently Harvard is leading the standings with a conference record of 7-1. Yale is right behind at 6-2. Princeton is stuck back in the middle of the pack at 4-3.</p>