Jeremy Lin is Asian?

Too soon?

    There are several layers to the Jeremy Lin story. One of them is that he’s Taiwanese American. The truth of the matter is that if Jeremy Lin weren’t Asian, there would be less appeal to his story. Lin is the only Asian American in the NBA, and fans aren’t use to seeing someone that looks like Yao Ming, but isn’t from China. Naturally, there is going to be some commentary on the racial aspect of Linsanity. Which brings us to Floyd Mayweather and his twitter.

Let’s take a step back and examine Jeremy’s stats during the two weeks stretch. Here’s how he ranks in Player Efficiency Rating (PER), which is a nerdy complicated stat that indicates the overall offensive performance of a player. Now if Floyd is right, then none of the black players ranked above him get the same hype as Jeremy. Let's take a look starting from number one:

  

1)   Lebron James

2)   Dwayne Wade

3)   Kevin Durant

4)   Kevin Love

5)   Chris Paul

6)   Manu Ginobli

7)   Derrick Rose

8)   Kobe Bryant

9)   Jeremy Lin

So to summarize, the black players that are playing around the same level as Jeremy Lin combined have 4 MVPs, 41 All Star appearances, 6 championships, and 2 player comparisons to Michael Jordan.  But besides that, they’re crap. Can someone please give them some attention? Frankly, I’m glad Floyd brought this issue to the forefront. For too long players like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant have had to play under the shadow of the likes of Jeremy Lin.

But wait there’s more. Floyd thought the nation did not understand his first tweet, so he elaborated in his subsequent tweets:

Can Floyd direct me to the place where black people aren’t allowed to cheer for Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose? There’s a race aspect to this story, but there’s also that little part about how Jeremy Lin is playing as well as players like Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose, and he’s only started to get significant minutes in the past two week. There’s nothing wrong with talking about race. There is something wrong when you put blanket statements over an entire community. Is this a bad time to bring about how Floyd once said he wants to chop Manny Pacquiao up like sashimi?

            Floyd isn’t the only one tweeting up a raucous. Here’s what Jason Whitlock, a controversial reporter for fox sports, tweeted during Lin’s 38 point outing against the Lakers:

                         Lol. That’s some next level racism right there.

            Then there’s the New York Post:

Headline writer to editor: “No, no don’t make a headline about this amazing talent’s game winning shot. He’s frickin Asian! We’re not getting this chance with Yi Jianlian!”

ESPN joined the party!

The man who made this denied that it was meant to be a racial slur. That means this is the rare Freudian slip on the computer, when you accidentally type in four words, think about what you’re typing, enter it, and then realize your mistake. He’s since been excused from his job.

Then there’s the traditional Freudian slip: 

All of these racially motivated post further indicate how as a nation, we aren’t used to Asians being famous. Can you imagine the outrage if  somebody made fun of African American’s heritage the same way? Actually SNL did an incredible job of displaying this very thing.

            It’s important to remember these people aren’t trying to be racist. Jason Whitlock is one of Lin’s biggest supporters. The Sportcenter anchor above is married to an Asian wife. People just aren’t as sensitive and have less of a filter when it comes to Asian and other minorities. There has never been a movement as big as the Civil Rights movement where Asians or other minorities have been at the forefront. This is the same reason we still have franchises named the Indians, the Braves and the Redskins. Can you imagine a professional team being called the Africans or the Chinese?
           
           Jeremy Lin’s meteoric rise is important for reasons far beyond basketball. He’s bringing issues to the forefront of the country that people for far too long turned a blind eye to. This is another reason why I love sports and I'm rooting for Jeremy Lin.