Recently signed Asian American Jeremy Lin may not last more than a few weeks as a New York Knicks point guard. He is third on the depth chart behind Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby, and Baron Davis is expected to be ready to go within a month. Regardless, Lin’s basketball life story reads like a corny Hollywood sports movie: overlooked and underestimated minority athlete defies long odds by overcoming discrimination and adversity to play professionally for a world-famous team.
Lin’s parents emigrated from Taiwan to Palo Alto, California, in the mid-1970s. Despite being named first team All-State and leading his high school team to the state title in 2006, he was was not offered a scholarship by any Pac-10 schools. Stanford, Cal, and UCLA all wanted him to walk-on. His high school coach spoke of how recruiters often asked not about his basketball skills, but about his volleyball skills. Lin instead chose to attend Harvard.
During his time with the Crimson, Lin was often the target of racial slurs from opposing fans and players. However, his decorated Ivy-league career was punctuated by prominent outbursts versus two nationally ranked programs: 27 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds in a win over Boston College; and 30 points and 9 rebounds in a close loss to UConn and future Final 4 MVP Kemba Walker.
Eight teams worked Lin out before the 2010 NBA draft, but he went undrafted. He joined the Dallas Mavericks summer league team, and turned heads in five games. The highlight video from his matchup with #1 overall pick John Wall is approaching 900,000 views on You Tube.
Lin turned down offers from the Mavs and L.A. Lakers and signed with his hometown Golden St Warriors, thus becoming the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA. Despite playing in only 29 games as a rookie, Lin was a crowd favorite not only at Warrior home games, but road games in cities with a high Asian American population such as Toronto and New York.
After the lockout, Lin was waived by the Warriors and signed with the Houston Rockets before being waived within a few weeks on Christmas Eve. Three days later he was claimed off waivers by the Knicks. The kid that was overlooked by Pac-10 recruiters and NBA scouts was now playing basketball in Madison Square Garden, the “World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Though he considers himself a basketball player first, Lin wants to be a role model for young Asian Americans. He understands what he symbolizes for fans when they chant his name late in garbage time. He’s said all the right things, and knows his place in basketball history.
Jeremy Lin may never be an NBA starting point guard. He may not even be in the league in a year or two. But more importantly, he has inspired and motivated countless other Americans by overcoming social and racial barriers to make a name for himself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/sports/basketball/15nba.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1953708,00.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/16/SPD213J9RD.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/22/SP671EHVTD.DTL
http://thesocietypages.org/colorline/category/jeremy-lin/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/sports/basketball/15nba.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1