Linsanity…hmmm what is that?! We’ll start with who Jeremy
Lin is, an Asian American professional basketball player for the Houston
Rockets who made a name for himself last year playing as a New York Knick. Lin
played college ball at Harvard which already says a lot as it is. His first
year in the league he bounced around a couple teams and didn’t actually get the
opportunity to display his skills as well as he would have liked to. The next
year he got the opportunity to grace Madison Square Garden as a Knick and
showed out as I’m sure he wanted to. At the time the Knick’s star player,
Carmelo Anthony was out with injuries; furthermore, this left the team wide
open for someone to take control for the time being. The Knicks picked up
Jeremy Lin and he immediately starting balling out. He came out of nowhere! He
was scoring relentlessly at all angles, getting teammates involved, winning
games consistently and even hitting game winning shots. He was making a name
for himself. He turned a losing team into a winning team and he was definitely
getting due credit for it. The term ‘Linsanity’ was adopted by the fans and
media to address Jeremy Lin’s unusual coming forth. He was gracing magazine
covers and was all over ESPN and Sportscenter. The media saturating the market
with ‘Linsanity.’ Lin’s story was one for the headlines…playing college ball at
Harvard, coming out of nowhere to help give the Knicks a push, going from
living on his friends couch to being the most talked about athlete for a period
of time. After the 2011-12 NBA season Lin was a free agent. He ended up signing
with the Houston Rockets for whom he plays for now. Yao Ming, another Asian
professional basketball player is a former member of the Houston Rockets. Yao
Ming was a huge deal when he was coming into the NBA because he was coming from
China, he was of huge height and he was the number one overall pick in the NBA
draft. Houston was said to have been made the perfect market for Lin to be
marketed for the fact that Ming had already garnered an Asian presence within
the city of Houston. Maybe that’s why Houston was willing to give Lin so much
money, because they knew he would generate much more revenue for the team in
other aspects. For these reasons Jeremy Lin’s race has definitely been of privilege
to him throughout his time in the NBA.
Written by: Janelle Campbell
Written by: Janelle Campbell
By: Taylor Cook
ReplyDeleteAs a true NBA fan I feel that the Jeremy Lin, Linsanity phase went way over the top. Don't get me wrong what Jeremy Lin was doing was incredible and it was a great story, but like people talked about in the videos we watched, it was only because he was Asian. He played sensational for about 10 straight games then Linsanity slowly started to fade away. Personally, I feel that the Houston Rockets way overpaid for Jeremy Lin's services and did it purely so they could have an Asian player as one of the faces of their franchise. Even though Jeremy Lin's numbers have significantly dropped from last year, he and James Harden still have the team vying for a playoff spot in the west. I do feel that Jeremy Lin is excellent for the NBA because he gives Asian people hope that they can make it to the NBA and be a great story just like Jeremy Lin. I hope that Asian American players continue to prosper into NBA careers because it is excellent for the sport as a whole. I know that I will always be a Jeremy Lin supporter no matter what.
Hey Janelle, I am very happy that Lin is successful in the NBA today. Unlike many, I’ve heard about Jeremy Lin since he was playing for Harvard. I would watch videos of him play and he was just at a different level compared to his teammates in college. I believe that what he needed to break through in the NBA was confidence. He has what it takes to be a great basketball player but the confidence has to be there. Lin worked as hard as any other player and he deserves to be where he is today. He plays smart on the court and he is just exiting to watch. Without a doubt that being Asian helped him get more positive attention. That is because it is not usual for a 6’3 Asian player performing well in the NBA. I think that shining in the Knicks also had a big impact on his “Linsanity” moment because of the extra publicity he got for being in New York. I believe that he proved to the world that Asian players could make it to the NBA. Yes, Yao Ming was there before him but Yao had an unbelievably huge height advantage over everyone.
ReplyDelete-Marcus Kok
Even though I feel that Jeremy Lin is a great basketball player, I still think he is overrated. When I first heard about Jeremy Lin I remember thinking to myself “who is this guy and where did he come from”, the fact that he came from Harvard was really amazing because Harvard generally does not have a great basketball program other than this year’s team. In my opinion if Carmelo Anthony would have never went out with an injury, we would have never heard of Jeremy Lin. It just goes to show, that you should always take advantage of any opportunity you might have because you might not get another chance at it again. After he left New York for Houston, I thought it was a great move on Houston’s part mainly due to the point you brought up about how Yao Ming had already gathered an Asian presence with Houston. From an organizational stand point it will really help sell more tickets to Asian Americans and generate more revenue for their team. Although Houston ended up signing Jeremy Lin, from watching Rockets games on television, it didn’t really look like signing him had helped the Rockets generate more revenue. There were always tons of seats open and the fans didn’t really look happy at all. I feel like part of this goes back to what I said earlier about him being overrated. Since he was so good in New York, players started to hear about him and his potential so they decided to play him more tightly and tougher and in turn he hasn’t been as productive as a player compared to when he was on the Knicks.
ReplyDelete-Josh Gibson
By: Taylor Brown
ReplyDeleteI feel like Linsanity has been not only great for the NBA, but great for the hope of all Asian players that aspire to play in the NBA. No one thought that Jeremy Lin would be anything special because, one, you do not see that many asian superstars in the NBA, and two, you do not see many kids come out of Harvard become superstars. As we talked about in class, Jeremy Lin could be one of the most marketable players in the NBA, because not only does he appeal to those within America, he can appeal to a whole other continent. That's huge for the NBA and they realize that. Though he has slipped off this year statistically, he is still a great player and Linsanity was probably the biggest regular season story of the year last year. It is great to see stories like this because it inspires others and can in some ways help deplete stereotypes that we see about basketball players.
ReplyDeleteI would like to think that Linsanity did not become so popular due to his privilege of being Asian. Before Jeremy Lin became a big deal within the National Basketball Association. Yao Ming had his time within the spotlight of the NBA because there were few Asian professional basketball players that had success within the History of the league. Linsanity became such a marketable term because of the location Lin played in, the story of his background career, and star players injured within the starting lineup for the New York Knicks at the time. Helped the struggling, Jeremy Lin, basketball player turn into a superstar sensation over night. Without players like Carmelo Anthony and Amari Stoudemire being healthy within the lineup, this drew attention to the Asian sensation. Playing within the biggest marketing city in the world, New York. If these guys had not been injured within one of the biggest markets of the U.S, Linsanity would of seemed Lindiciouls because these star players would of stole the show in New York from him.
By: Anthony Pape
Jeremy who? Some people may not know his name but they probably seen his game. As soon as Jeremy Lin got the chance to show off his talents, he made sure people knew his name. I think Linsanity was the perfect name for him. He showed off his talents and made sure everybody knew what he was capable of. I think Jeremy Lin is a great basketball player as well as a team player. He gave plenty of his teammates help with assists, points, and blocks. I feel as though he earned his fame on sports center and the multiple covers on magazines. I don't necessarily think it was simply because he is from Asian descent. Some people may look up to him and aspire to follow in his footsteps, specially those of Asian descent. I also think its good to diversify all sports so everything wont always be black and white. Jeremy Lin has a great ability to maneuver himself in the paint to score points. And everyone cant always do that.
ReplyDelete~Angel Akinkuoye
I agree that Lin’s race has definitely been a privilege for him. As we saw from that clip of Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith discussing Jeremy Lin they informed us that the reason he might have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated two times is because of the huge Asian American market and that with him on the cover they have the potential to sell more copies of the magazine and increase their awareness world wide. Same goes for his sponsors if Nike wanted to get more Asian’s wearing their gear it would be big for them to sign someone like Lin. In this case I don’t think racism is necessarily a bad thing because it is helping him, and companies just see it as a business decision to sign him but I can see how other players who have practiced and played just as hard if not better find it unfair but I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it.
ReplyDeleteBy: Matt Goryance
I am not a huge NBA fan; I had never of Jeremy Lin until he became a nationally recognized for “Linsanity”. After watching clips from his plays yes I agree he is a impressive player but I don’t see him being any better than other huge athletes in the NBA who aren’t Asian. I understand it isn’t everyday a Asian player from Harvard shines in the pro but I agree with the comments above that his coverage was a little over the top. He is a good player but he isn’t an unstoppable player. Since he has been in Houston I haven’t heard about him, and it might be because Houston has already had their Asian all-star in Yao Ming. I agree with Janelle that Jeremy Lin’s race has been a privilege to him because he received a lot of attention last year just for doing things that Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo and so many other athletes do every season but don’t receive a insane following.
ReplyDeleteBy: Jessica Gatten
Everything seems to be looking good for Jeremy Lin right now. His being traded to Houston can only seem to help him considering Yao Ming was there previously. Like you said, he was given a huge contract to play there. All we really have left to see is just the kind of legacy that Jeremy Lin will leave once his time in the NBA is over. Lin has already shown signs of greatness during the "Linsanity" days. However, this was just the beginning. Gaining worldwide fame has its advantages, but there is also a lot of weight on his shoulders as well. Yao Ming never panned out to be the great player that he was supposed to be. He was good but injuries kept halting his success. Being an Asian American, Lin has the chance to truly become the NBA's first breakout star of Asian descent. Of course, only time will tell just how good Lin can really be. Who knows? Someday he may retire as a future guaranteed Hall of Famer. I am sure that is one of his own personal goals as well.
ReplyDeleteBy David Shelmon