Linsanity!
MOST of you on the Linternet would probably have heard about the Linsane Lin-terest surrounding a particular Lin-dividual - known as Jeremy Lin. Who exactly is this guy who’s had everyone - adding “Lin” ” in front of every word, whether it works or not?
The Newyork Knicks basketball player has been trending on Twitter, has made the cover of Time magazine after just five games, made the Sports Illustrated cover even earlier, and had US president Barrack Obama gushing g about him to his aides.
But just-lin-case you haven’t been on-lin-e in a while and you missed all that, here’s all you need to know about the basketballer now known as the “Lin-sanity”.
What the fuss is about
Jeremy Lin has gone from a part-time basketballer who couldn’t get an athletic scholarship, and was dropped by two NBA teams in this current lockout-reduced season alone, to leading the Knicks to a brilliant run of eight wins in nine games.
He’s averaged over 20 points and about 10 assists per game since that run started, and even then he was playing mostly without Knicks superstars Amar’e Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony. The game that really annouced his arrival was against the Los Angeles Lakers, where he outscored Kobe Bryant with 38 points and seven assists.
However, while his playing stats alone are totally out of this world, it’s his remarkable rise to fame that’s really had everyone going Lin-sane.
Rough start
He was effectively the Knicks’ fifth choice point guard at the start of the season and had been considered for a trade to free up salary cap space. He was sleeping on teammate Landry Fields’ couch because he wasn’t sure the Knicks would keep him long enough to warrant renting his own place. By the way, he has a degree in Economics from Harvard.
The only reason he got a chance to play was because of injuries and the Knicks’ poor 8-15 win-loss record.
Since that first game on Feb 5 against the New Jersey Nets, however, he has single-handedly turned things around.
By the end of that game, he had 25 points, seven assists and five rebounds. The rest, as they say, is history.
Where he’s from
He might be a huge sensation back in Taiwan where his parents emigrated from and where thousands are now taking to the courts, but Lin was born in Los Angeles, and speaks very little Mandarin.
That hasn’t stopped the Taiwanese media from writing about his Lin-ology, and hassling distant relatives still in Taiwan so much that Lin had to speak up
“One special request I have is for the media in Taiwan to kind of give them their space because they can’t go to work without being bombarded and people following them,” he said after leading the Knicks to a 104-97 win over defending NBA champion Dallas on Sunday.
“I just want people to respect the privacy of my relatives in Taiwan. hopefully this will get back to (the Taiwanese media) because they need to live their lives.”
Racism
Lin has spoken about how he had to deal with racist jeers from opposing fans when he played in college.
Nevertheless, even after his big break, he’s still had to face a few uncomfortable situations involving racial stereotypes.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr posted on Twitter, saying: “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”
Of course, he ignored the fact that Lin had set an NBA record for having scored more points than any player – regardless of ethnicity – in his first four games.
ESPN also made a huge gaffe after Lin committed nine turnovers in the Knicks’ first loss since Lin came around, using the headline “Chink in the armour” on their website.
There are observers who believe that Lin won’t be able to sustain his stunning form, but the player himself has spoken about how he hopes to break American stereotypes of Asian people, and the effect of that will probably last way beyond his playing career.