<p>re: game Friday night against the Hornets – ok so they lost, but he scored 26 points (same as Amare Stoudemire). Lin-Credible.</p>
<p>The Knick’s game this Sunday (tomorrow) will be nationally televised at 10:00 AM Pacific time.</p>
<p>What a game! Can his Ivy opponents still claim they can successfully defend him now?</p>
<p>cbreeze, LOL! You mean the NBA hasn’t “figured him out” yet? </p>
<p>Here is an article from today’s local rag that explains my interest in JLin. When I moved here 4 years ago I went to all the HS games and watched this young man play, currently playing at Harvard and played with JLin for one year. </p>
<p>[Jeremy</a> Lin passed guard mantle at Harvard to ex-Hopewell star Brandyn Curry | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper](<a href=“http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/18/3026296/lin-passed-guard-mantel-to-ex.html]Jeremy”>http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/18/3026296/lin-passed-guard-mantel-to-ex.html)</p>
<p>Sorry to post this negative news, but I’m sure you’ve all seen it by now:
[ESPN</a> disciplines two over Jeremy Lin comments - NBA News | FOX Sports on MSN](<a href=“NBA News, Scores, Standings & Stats | FOX Sports”>NBA News, Scores, Standings & Stats | FOX Sports)</p>
<p>At least EPSN took the appropriate disciplinary measures. It’s amazing in this day and age that some reporter thought using a pejorative racial term would make a good headline.</p>
<p>It was ridiculous that Lin didn’t get any D1 scholarship offers. Not only did he lead a state championship team which defeated nationally ranked Matre Dei (sp?), he was also named Mr. California basketball by all major publications in California. However, he has himself said that he doesn’t have special athleticism, and that you can only tell how good a player he is by watching multiple games. That’s particularly true at the point guard position. Still, there are plenty of people at Div. 1 schools that just know how to play the game well, but don’t have jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism. I’m sure the Asian stereotypes had a big part of the lack of a Div. 1 scholarships.</p>
<p>As for his troubles making it onto an NBA team, that seems a bit more understandable. First of all, the lack of training camps robbed Lin of the chance to distinguish himself. Also, I’d bet if he had played at UCLA or Stanford instead of Harvard, he would have been taken more seriously. However, the guy did hold his own against 1st draft pick John Wall, and torched UConn and BC in college. He looks like a quality player.</p>
<p>As for the obviously insulting comment by the ESPN reporter, I stopped listening to all the white noise from ESPN years ago. I just tune out the comments, most of which are typically insiped or just plain idiocy. Apparentlly it doesn’t take much in the brains or character department to be a sports “journalist” these days. Where’s Red Barber, Howard Cosell and Robert Lipsyte when you need them?</p>
<p>not the first time for ESPN, they also used “Chink in the Armor” during the 2008 Olympics [ESPN</a> Headline Writers Probably Should’ve Opted For Something Less Chinky](<a href=“ESPN Headline Writers Probably Should've Opted For Something Less Chinky”>ESPN Headline Writers Probably Should've Opted For Something Less Chinky)</p>
<p>soccerguy, I know you don’t mean it, but an ESPN anchor just got suspended for 30 days repeating what you wrote in your post above.</p>
<p>I hope you erase the offensive racist slur in your post.</p>
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I found it odd as well.</p>
<p>On one youtube interview, J. Lin himself said he was very disappointed (or even use the word “angry”) when Stanford, which is based in California (actually located in the same ZIP code where J. Lin’s high school is at), refused to take him. As a student whose inspiration was to be an athlete someday, on that interview, he said Harvard was actually one of the last schools he would like to attend at that time.</p>
<p>I believe he was a full pay student at Harvard (his parents likely earned too much – he was the class of 2010, so it was before the middle-class financial aid initiative at several top colleges had happened) as Ivies do not give out non-need based scholarship. But his reluctance to go to Harvard is that he was fully aware that going there would not help him to get into NBA in the future.</p>
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<p>There is nothing racially offensive about the phrase chink in one’s armor. A chink is a gap or crack and having one in your armor is a problem in combat. Use of any phrase can be converted to being racially offensive if you try hard enough but the phrase it itself is not racially offensive.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard the pejorative since I was in high-school and never associated it with the phrase until this current incident. Was it intentional? I don’t know - there may be many familiar with the phrase that don’t know that it’s a pejorative to Asians - there may be a lot of Asians that don’t consider it a pejorative unless you point it out - particularly those that are under 30.</p>
<p>For those writing news copy, they should have a filter that checks words and phrases used that cold possibly be offensive to any group. Something like that would make for a fun CS project.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not sure younger folks would know that word in that context. Would someone have actually used it deliberately in a play on words? I don’t know but have trouble imagining it just because it would be so stupid to do so.</p>
<p>I think the last time I heard it used in an offensive way, it was Archie Bunker.</p>
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<p>I never really understood why that show was so popular. I often found it sort of offensive. Then again, maybe that was the point.</p>
<p>If it were current, Alexandra Wallace would have used it.</p>
<p>BTW, I saw part of the post-game interview and Lin mentioned that the coaching team made adjustments to their offense all the time (I assume for every game, every opponent and during games). Lin’s position and approach may be similar for every game but where they put everyone else and how they move changes.</p>
<p>I watched the expressions from Dirk a few times after Lin passed around him and he just looked up in the air, resigned after the play. Lin can come in and shoot, come in part-way and shoot, shoot from the outside or dish it off. I imagine that if you’re the defense, it’s hard not to collapse into the paint when you see Lin charging in leaving him with a lot of options to dish it to some excellent outside shooters and inside big men.</p>
<p>Using “chink in the armor” in a headline was really stupid, and the pun should have been caught whether intentional or not, but I watched a video clip of the announcer using the phrase and I didn’t detect even a hint of irony in his voice, so I am guessing he spoke the phrase innocently (ok, stupidly) and I think we may be over-reacting. I get a strange feeling of deja vu… haven’t we done this before? Oh, yes…</p>
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<p>NJres–I would give the speaker more latitude, then the headline writer, also. I think it’s a familiar term in disucssing an athlete’s weakness, and so could be used off the cuff. I think that headline writers, though, tend to play on puns very often, and that there’s more time to be mindful, or to choose not to be. So I would judge the two cases differently.</p>
<p>I had a look at the phrase in the context of Michael Chang (great Chinese-American tennis player in the 1990s) and see that the phrase was used in articles about him without any apparent controversy. Perhaps many are more sensitized to possible insult today.</p>
<p>I would have tried to discern if it was intentional (I doubt it) and then ask him or her for a public apology if it wasn’t but fire the person if it was. I wouldn’t have suspended the speaker for 30 days if at all - maybe just a public apology.</p>
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<p>I think it’s a wonderfully lucky break that he didn’t get any scholarship offers.<br>
– It gave him a chance to shine in an unusual athletic arena.<br>
– He significantly strengthened Harvard’s basketball program while he was there and helped lift them up from their usual position as the Ivy basketball doormat.<br>
– He showed that going the Ivy/non-scholarship route to college athletics can still lead to a pro career if you are good enough, academically smart enough, and willing to work hard.
– He showed that no-scholarship college athletic programs where teams consist of real students can be a viable alternative to the often scandal-ridden, mega-million dollar, tail-wags-the-dog, athletic departments stocked with pseudo-students that so heavily dominate a lot of major universities.
– It’s obvious that having gone to Harvard his a key part of his current appeal. It gets mentioned in nearly every news story about him. Spike Lee was wearing a replica of his No. 4 Harvard jersey at court side on Sunday. </p>
<p>Would Linsanity be the same if Lin had gotten a scholarship offer and played for say Fresno State? I don’t think so. I think Linsanity has four key elements: 1. The Cinderella story of Lin’s sparkling play in energizing the moribund Knicks and leading them to their recent victories. 2. His Asian heritage. 3. His Harvard background. 4. His humble yet confident demeanor.</p>
<p>Take away any of these elements including number 3 and substitute some scholarship school or basketball factory college in Harvard’s place and it just wouldn’t be quite the same.</p>
<p>The on-air person who used that expression used it previously in a question about a non-Asain athlete last year. For what it’s worth, he is married to an Asian.</p>