There's Something In The Water

I swear there is something in the water

My latest example of sheer, unadulterated, out-of-nowhere total weirdness comes from the sports world.  His name:  Jeremy Lin.

So what's the big deal?  Here's the short version...

Led his high school team in California to the state championships, but was first California Basketball Player of Year to not get a scholarship offer to a Division I school.  So he goes to Harvard, does well there, but is not drafted in the NBA.  He's brought in as a free agent by two different teams in the fall, but both cut him.  So New York picked him up, but they decided to send him to the Development League team.

Due to injuries, they recalled him this past week.  In four games, he has turned the NBA upside down.  Last night he went toe-to-toe with Kobe Bryant (current leading NBA scorer and one of my least favorite people in the world) and he outplayed him.  

OK, so why is this more than a sports story?  THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN.  NOT EVER.  I don't know how clearly I can say this - nobody EVER goes from high school through college and into the pros with sensational, maybe even superstar abilities, without anyone knowing.  But this kid did.  For the first time since I've been following sports.  You have good players who can become better than everyone thought.  You can have marginal players who improve more than expected because they work hard, or their bodies/minds mature or something.  But you never see this:  the kid broke the record for most points scored during first four games.  And it wasn't close.

I put the picture up there because he's Asian.  And everyone knows that's what happened.  He didn't get a scholarship because he's Asian - specifically Chinese but I doubt that had much to do with it.  He didn't get a chance in the NBA because he's Asian.  But I don't know how.  There are lots of folks with talent who get shut out.  Somehow he broke through, and man oh man is it fun to watch.  :)

Stories like Jeremy Lin’s rarely happen in big-money professional sports, and especially with a franchise like the Knicks, long known for big-ticket acquisitions like the none-too-compatible forwards Anthony and Stoudemire last season.

Hence, the emergence of Lin is hard to believe, even for someone who has already lived a variation of it.

“Who is this guy? Where’d they find him?” the Giants’ Justin Tuck wondered aloud to a small group of friends while waiting for an elevator after watching Lin — in the most dramatic episode of his new hit reality show, “Harvard to N.B.A. Heaven” — continue to make a mockery of developmental convention.

Granted, compared with the rocket launching of Lin, Victor Cruz’s unheralded rise to pass-catching prominence was aboard a hot-air balloon. And Tuck, a defensive star of the Super Bowl, was somewhat preoccupied a week ago Saturday when the desperate Knicks unleashed Linsanity.

But out on the court after the Knicks’ so-called junior varsity won its fourth straight game, a gentleman who has seen it all at the self-proclaimed World’s Most Famous Arena — or believed he had — shook his head in giddy disbelief.
“I’ve been coming here since high school in 1955,” said Cal Ramsey, leaning on a cane in the runway. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, just out of nowhere.”http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sports/basketball/the-knicks-jeremy-lin-keeps-his-cool-as-heads-spin-around-him.html?_r=1&ref=sports

more on Jeremy Lin...

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/02/understanding-linsanity-he-makes-us-all-a-little-more-free-to-dream/253253/3/?single_page=true

I do blame talent scouts for missing his potential. Lots. And it doesn't take a faux-Malcolm Gladwell management consultant to understand why they did. They missed Lin's ability for the same reason that Steve Nash wasn't touted out of high school—or why Jason Seahorn's NFL career was a surprise. That would be racism. Duh.

From prep scouts to the pros, the people who gauge hoops talent are racist. Maybe not overtly. But they are. Just like the rest of our society, these otherwise intelligent people truly believe in the dumb, degrading myth of the superior black athlete. That is, they truly believe that "White Men Can't Jump." Or, for that matter, Asians can't either—a notion that might come as a shock, for instance, to Zhu Jianhua, a former world record holder in the High Jump.

Which leads to Jake, wondering whether fans relate to Lin more for his perseverance than his race. Of course not. If Lin were a black man from Harvard playing the NBA, he would only be a great basketball story. As the child of Taiwanese immigrants, Lin is a powerful political and cultural symbol. Overseas, he's a thorn in China's side. But here at home he's a one-man Mythbusters—a dribbling, dunking stereotype debunker. Lin's every bucket repudiates the still widely-held, but flat-out Nazi-esque notion that there's even the slightest bit of a connection between skin tone and athletic ability. In so doing, in shattering another stereotype, he makes us all a little more free to dream.

So when Patrick wonders how many more like Lin are out there—people of whatever ethnic background who are dreaming big while crashing on someone's couch, I get chills thinking of it. My answer is: there's a few more now than last week because of #17, and we can all hope that his success Linspires them to dream on.

Don't  you mean, Jewemy Win ? ; )

Don't  you mean, Jewemy Win ? ; )

-ericreinhardt2003

Yes, I'm talking about Jeremy Lin, who seems to have a knack for revealing racism everywhere - including yours, apparently.  I try to ignore you Eric, but you really, this is a bit much, don't you think? 

Lighten up for God's sake. It's just like the other day there was an article which featured Lin coming out of a Chinese Fortune Cookie. He IS Chinese though. A lot of people just can't see the attempt at humor. . . looking for a ra-a-a-a-cist at every opportunity. For the record, I'd break bread with more Chinese than Americans---fewer morons over there than in this country.

The Fortune Cookie, The "chink in the armor" (wink wink) comment from that sportscaster, and your comment are all just as bigoted, Eric.

Your "attempt at humor" wasn't funny. Neither were the other examples stated.

Lighten up for God's sake. It's just like the other day there was an article which featured Lin coming out of a Chinese Fortune Cookie. He IS Chinese though. A lot of people just can't see the attempt at humor. . . looking for a ra-a-a-a-cist at every opportunity. For the record, I'd break bread with more Chinese than Americans---fewer morons over there than in this country.

-ericreinhardt2003

you only find it funny cuz you are white.  

Okay, this is going to sound crazy...... 

Did you ever play that game when you were little where you say a simple word, such as car or tree, over and over and over and over until it doesn't make any sense anymore?

Maybe that's what the entire world needs to do with all the words used to bring somebody down.  Just keep saying them over and over and over until we realize how ridiculous they are.

Just a thought.

Okay so there's something in the water eh?

I just watched 'Take Shelter"

The base story line is simply that it rains and there is 'something in the rain' that turns everyone different/zombie like.

The whole movie was shit really because it left you guessing even right at the end if he was crazy or not. I mean make up your damn mind. They certainly did a good job of making him look crazy.

Aaaanyyyway ..

Yes, something in the rain that changes people. Hrm, where have I heard that befor?

Lou, about a word being said over and over ..Never tried that ..Just that bloody mary thing in the mirror (scared the hell out of me when I was like 10 LOL)

Anyway the first thing I thought when you said that was, ...What one word is getting said over and over ...that goes toward the Great Revealing...You know like ..the world over what is everyone saying over and over?

Anonymous.
TPTB.
2012
economy
doom

These words are starting to not make sense to me anymore.

I find it funny because the Chinese have difficulty pronouncing the letter "l", periol, just like the Germans have difficulty pronouncing "w" and "th", and I've often made fun of that too, but "oddly", there is never any cries of racism when I do that, but I suspect its because they are white and it's been politically correct to poke fun at white people for quite some time  . . . but I don't  vant to go der right now. ; )

Eric, there is deep seated racism against Germans too. It is also widely expressed in America and probably else where too. It doesn't make it right or justifiable. 

And the thing you said about Jeremy Lin is really offensive because he was born here and doesn't have an accent to make fun of. So it's clear you're not making fun of an individual's speech impediment, but the ancestry of a fellow american.

Lou, about a word being said over and over ..Never tried that ..Just that bloody mary thing in the mirror (scared the hell out of me when I was like 10 LOL)
Anyway the first thing I thought when you said that was, ...What one word is getting said over and over ...that goes toward the Great Revealing...You know like ..the world over what is everyone saying over and over?
Anonymous.
TPTB.
2012
economy
doom

These words are starting to not make sense to me anymore.

-concernedmomma

Ha!  Absolutely excellent point, momma! 

Again, Friday I'm not making fun of anyone's "ancestry". I'm making fun of the fact that certain peoples have trouble pronouncing certain letters and when they attempt to pronounce them it sounds funny IRREGARDLESS OF THAT PERSON'S RACE(I'm an equal opportunity comic). Comedy by definition involves making fun of someone or something and again it is clear that it is politically incorrect to involve a minority in this, unless of course one is a minority commenting on one's own race.  That said,  I think I'm going to nominate a few individuals here to the Department of Homeland Security for "thought police/political correctness department" candidates. I'm also going to recommend that those same individuals engage in some needed therapy by viewing the Comedy Channel a few nights a week. It just might work.  ; ) 

eric,

your mealy-mouthed defense of your sad, sad "comedy" says everything.  i'm out.  feel free to take over this thread with your race-baiting comments.  

cheers
periol

You and friday were the ones who injected race into the conversation here, periol. I was focused on LANGUAGE. And as a wise man from the far east once said, "Whatever happened to wiv and wet wiv?"(sorry folks I just couldn't resist).

Accents can be funny, but people can get their feelings hurt too. Watch any Monty Python episode. The 40-year-old show was quite politically incorrect, but most of their targets were people in the British Isles, Europe and the US.