Jeremy Lin is here and giving us all a lesson in sensitivity training.
Floyd Mayweather and Anthony Federico be damned, there’s actually a tactful way to react to an Asian-American’s rise to prominence in what has, for a long time, been a game dominated by black men. Unfortunately, Lin’s success has been clouded somewhat by a folly of racially-charged statements from various figures in the media.
Jeremy Lin is a man. Jeremy Lin is an Asian-American man. Jeremy Lin is an Asian-American man who went to Harvard. Jeremy Lin is an Asian-American man who went to Harvard and plays basketball for the New York Knicks.
In this short list of Lin’s attributes, his Asian descent is right up there at No. 2. He will always be seen first as Asian. But as far as we can deduce, his being Asian or not has no implications on his basketball skills.
It’s not hard to figure out why we have this heightened fascination with Lin and it’s worth contemplating whether we would evaluate him under the same microscope if he were black.
Mayweather took his shot at answering the latter, tweeting on Feb. 13, “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.”
What Mayweather said was incredibly shortsighted, and talking about the above tweet in any light is feeding his monstrous egomania. But his remarks are worth highlighting because they illustrate the warped mentality I’m sure many basketball fans and non-fans alike share about Lin.
Yes, a good deal of the hype surrounding Lin is because he’s Asian, but certainly not all of it. Anyone who sets the NBA all-time record for most points scored in his first four starts is going to garner some hype. Anyone who takes an 8-15 team and brings it to a .500 record in a few weeks is going to garner some hype. Anyone who does this, all the while coming into the league undrafted and from an Ivy League school, is going to garner some hype.
Lin did something LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Wilt Chamberlain never did. So to politely disagree, no Floyd, not all the hype is because he’s Asian.
And regarding Mayweather’s second point about black players doing what Lin does and not receiving the same praise, sorry, but I’ll have to respectfully disagree again. Are you to tell me you have never seen a black player in a game highlight? Or on the “SportsCenter” Top 10? When a player does what Lin does to turn a team’s season around, he gets praise regardless of his race.
Yao Ming delighted us in part because he was Chinese. Pau Gasol is an interesting case partly because he’s from Spain. Steve Nash is Canadian. Dirk Nowitzki is German. Tony Parker is French. The NBA celebrates diversity and implores its fans to do so as well.
But it’s important to remember that prolonged success and recognition don’t come from skin color, but from talent. All the aforementioned players, along with being born outside the U.S., are — or were — top-tier basketball players.
Misguided tweets and insensitive headlines have illustrated the uncertainty many of us feel in how to approach Lin’s success. We will always see him as an Asian-American. In time, let’s hope his race means less to us than his basketball prowess.