RANTS DON'T) / MEET THE MAN WHO KNEW JEREMY LIN PRE LINSANITY
[PHOTO
- Jeremy Lin reacts after scoring during the first half of an NBA
basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers, in New York on February 10. AP
San Francisco—But suddenly it hit: Linsanity.]
SAN FRANCISCO, FEBRUARY 18, 2012 (INQUIRER) KWENTO By Benjamin Pimentel
- It's an inspiring underdog story, a tale of the triumph of
determination.
But certainly one reason Jeremy Lin's story has become a big deal is the fact
that he's Asian American.
That was why there was excitement in the Bay Area Asian American community
when Jeremy Lin joined the Golden State Warriors two years ago.
[PHOTO - INQUIRER WRITER Benjamin Pimentel]
I thought back then that I'd finally get my son interested in basketball
(he's more into baseball) and we'd catch games at the Oakland Arena, a short
train ride from our house.
But we never got around to doing that. And just like that Lin was gone. He
was traded first to the Houston Rockets and then to the New York Knicks. It
seemed as if he would fade into oblivion.
Who wouldn't be thrilled by the sudden, spectacular rise of a young kid who
finally got a chance to shine?
But then, a shrill noise from someone very familiar to Filipinos.
"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian,"
went Floyd Mayweather's tweet. "Black players do what he does every night
and don't get the same praise."
By now, we're used to him, of course.
This is the same guy who has repeatedly insulted Manny Pacquiao using racist,
homophobic language. Mayweather had proudly declared that he was "going to cook
that little yellow chump" and would "make that mother-(bleep) make me a sushi
roll and cook me some rice."
On Lin, Mayweather's rants simply did not make any sense.
Lin's an excellent player. But Mayweather thinks all the excitement
is simply because he's Asian?
Well, he conveniently missed the other part of the story: that the fact that
Lin's an Asian American was most like a factor why he got noticed only recently.
And what about Mayweather's remark that black players "don't get the same
praise?" What's he talking about?
African American players are recognized as among the best in basketball and
in other sports.
In fact, for the broader African American community, that has even become a
problem in a way. For they have fallen victim to a cruel stereotype—one that
says sports is the only arena where blacks can excel.
I covered the Asian American affairs beat for the San Francisco Chronicle in
the early 1990s and have encountered the prejudices the Asian American and
African American communities have had to wrestle with.
While covering the aftermath of O.J. Simpson's arrest, I met an off-due black
cop outside Simpson's home who lamented that African Americans are generally
viewed as being able to shine only as athletes or entertainers.
And it's a kind of corrosive prejudice that Mark Dean had to contend with.
Dean's one of the most respected technologists in the United States,
considered a pioneer in Silicon Valley who headed IBM's famous research lab in
what's known as the Mecca of technology.
He also happened to be African American. But his lighter complexion made some
people wonder if he's indeed black – and, sadly, so did the fact that he's such
a brilliant guy.
As Dean told me a few years ago, a friend of his, who was white, once asked
him: "You're not black, are you? You get good grades and you do these things—and
black people don't do that."
Dean simply said, "'I am black and we can do these things."
"This was depictive of the attitude of what blacks could and couldn't do," he
told me.
Asian Americans have had to struggle with a different set of prejudice: one
that portrays them as the model minority.
It assumes that all Asians will excel in academics, that they are
extraordinarily good in math and science, that they are reliable and
hard-working—but also generally unassertive. They may be good middle managers,
but not good enough to be the boss. And they almost certainly cannot be expected
to shine in the world of sports. (Well, maybe in karate, Kung Fu or ping pong.)
These twisted images of blacks and Asians are rooted in history, as law
professor Frank Wu explained to me in the early 1990s.
After the Civil War, public figures and officials, still annoyed by the end
of slavery, portrayed immigrant Chinese workers as being more obedient and
industrious than the newly freed slaves whom they replaced on plantations in the
South.
These prejudices reemerged in the 1990s in the fight to dismantle affirmative
action programs meant to open up more opportunities for minorities.
In these battles, Asians were pitted against blacks. This became
objectionable to many Asian Americans, like Wu.
As he complained to me at the height of the affirmative action battles back
in the 1990s, "I don't want to see myself or my life experiences or the example
of Asian Americans used to further divide people. I don't want people pointing
at me and saying, `Hey, look, you Asian Americans are doing well—why can't
African Americans do well, too?'"
Fortunately, some of these attitudes have started to break down. Yao Ming was
one example. The rise of Jeremy Lin marks another important chapter.
Hopefully, 20 years from now, having an Asian American star player in the NBA
or other leagues will no longer be such a big deal.
But it is today, which is why Lin's spectacular performances have drawn much
attention in the U.S. and abroad.
Lin has made history. And the fact is, despite Mayweather's
incredibly narrow viewpoint, it's a history in which African Americans played a
critical role.
That Lin exploded on the sports scene this year is significant for another
reason.
This year marks the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut as a major
league baseball player, when he broke the color barrier in the popular American
pastime.
In a way, the Jeremy Lin story can be traced back to that chapter in American
history.
As the first African American to play in major league baseball, Robinson
faced tougher, even more dangerous challenges. That's because there were people
blinded by prejudice who really wanted him to fail.
Robinson blazed the trail for people like Lin. So did the others who came
after him — including Hank Aaron and Muhammad Ali – athletes made it easier and
even possible for non-whites to enter and even shine the world of American
sports.
Some of the pioneers were also Asian Americans.
Like Wat Misaka, the Japanese American who became the first non-white to play
in the NBA in the late 1940s. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was Filipino
American Raymond Townsend.
These are historical connections that Mayweather is clearly too arrogant to
understand.
Still, Mayweather's own career does offer one important insight. He keeps
bragging about his undefeated record.
Well, now we know that it is entirely possible for a sports figure to build
an undefeated record — and still end up a loser.
FROM BROBIBLE ONLINE
nba Meet the Man Who Knew About Linsanity Before the Rest of
Us by Reggie Noble on February 10, 2012 at 6:30pm
Few could have predicted Jeremy Lin's meteoric rise to popularity,
both in New York City and across the world. The Harvard-educated point guard,
the first American-born player of Asian descent to play in the NBA has come out
of nowhere to become the league's hottest topic. Who could have seen all this
coming?
Well, Andrew Slayton, for one. He served as an "official unofficial"
assistant for Palo Alto High School during the Lin years. In that time, he
attended practices, sat on the bench and had a front-row seat for the California
state championship that the school won.
He also registered Linsanity.com anonymously on July 17, 2010. Thanks to
clever headline writers — and Lin, of course — that phrase has become a thing.
Advantage, Slayton.
Since Lin's shocking debut, the website that lay barren for almost a year and
a half suddenly became populated with t-shirts celebrating the second-year man's
accomplishments, with slogans ranging from "LIN.Y.C." to "Lin Your Face." All of
these pun-driven items are available for $16.
Here's where things get a little weird. This morning, we received a tip about
the site as well as the man behind it. It seems that we weren't alone. It turns
out that the tipster is a "sports marketing expert." Coincidence? We think not.
We followed up anyway, and Slayton was more than willing to speak on all
things Lin.
"We've been waiting for our hero to go Linsane, knowing it was just a matter
of time," he said. "Jeremy has always been big-time. But, he's been pooh-poohed
as not big-time enough for a long time. And, at every level he's had this sort
of coming out party where people finally go – 'Wait. That Asian kid is the best
player in the gym, isn't he? And, you say, "ahhh, yeah he is… and by a lot."
Slayton recalls one of his favorite Lin moments from Palo Alto.
"I remember a time I came late to a game – the fourth quarter – and I sat
down behind the bench and sort of assessed the game, Jeremy wasn't in and we
were losing. Typically, Jeremy never left the game but I think he had foul
trouble and the clock was winding down and things weren't looking good. Then it
dawned on me that the head coach, normally very on the ball, had forgotten about
Jeremy and so had the bench assistants. So I yelled to my buddy, the head coach,
"Hey don't you want Jeremy in the game?"
"I remember Jeremy kind of looking around with a look like "yeah, he does."
Well, coach quickly got Jeremy in that game and bam! It was game over. Jeremy's
just that special in the clutch. There are so many phenomenal moments in his
high school career and that was one that was fun to be part of."
Slayton said that he's happy to see Lin get the respect he always thought he
deserved and that interest in his shirts has already caused him to change his
production process.
The inspiration for the term "Linsanity" struck Slayton, an avid writer, when
Lin was at Harvard. He knew that, in time, it would become part of the cultural
consciousness.
"This is just the beginning for Jeremy," Slayton said. "I believe that he
will have a great NBA career. Linsanity is going global. And, we wish Jeremy
nothing but success."
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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