BRANDON TORRES
STAFF WRITER
Jeremy Lin is one of basketball’s most surreal stories in recent memory. After going undrafted following his college career, the Golden State Warriors offered Lin a deal. Lin received little playing time his rookie year and was subsequently sent to the NBA’s developmental league (D-League).
After bouncing around between several teams and the D-League, the New York Knicks claimed Lin at the end of December 2011 as their fourth back-up guard. In a New York Post interview, Knicks head coach, Mike D’Antoni, revealed that Lin started getting minutes due to the whole team doing poorly.
“He got lucky because we were playing so bad,” D’Antoni said.
Coming off the bench against the New Jersey Nets on Feb. 4, Lin recorded 25 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds and lead his team to victory, to the shock of everyone in attendance. Lin led the Knicks to a 7-game win streak. He suddenly became the topic of every sports show in America. According to statistics provided by ESPN, in the twelve games Lin started prior to the All- Star break, Lin registered 22 points and 9 assists per game.
What has made Lin such an interesting story to follow is how the media is handling him. Lin is the first American player in NBA history to be of Taiwanese descent and has faced stereotypes his entire career. In an interview with NPR, Lin revealed that throughout college fans would yell out “Chinese import, go back to china, slanty [sic] eyes, can you see the scoreboard?” and any other offensive stereotypes.
Even major news outlets have had their fare of trouble regarding racial slurs towards Lin. Following the first loss the Knicks faced with Lin, ESPN ran a headline stating, “Chink in the Armor,” detailing Lin’s 9 turnovers during the game. ESPN released a statement stating that the headline was removed and later apologized for their mistake.
“It’s fair to say that no player has created the interest and the frenzy in this short period of time, in any sport, like Jeremy Lin has,” NBA commissioner David Stern said in an interview with ESPN.