Referring to the "fans" who relate and play the excuse game. Iys comedic how little about sports it is. Read the post above, it will help you
no it doesn't, draft position means shet other than the big contract you get. The NBA is really good at filtering players out of the league and those who are drafted on the low ends has plenty of opportunities to prove themselves through practice, summer league, d-league. Chandler Parsons got a starter role in his rookie season being drafted in the 2nd round, Calderon who was undrafted played starting pg for Raptors for many years, Aaron Brooks who was drafted late first round was sent down to the dleague at one point, but became the MIP. On the other hand, there are tons of high draft picks who sizzled out in a few seasons and are nowhere to be found in the NBA, like TWill, Beasely, Joe Alexander, YiJianlian, Thabeet, Flynn, anthony randolph just off top of my head. If you are good, you will get your chance, The fact that Lin was undrafted didn't realistically affect his ability to play in the NBA at all because he was offered numerous opportunities from many many teams to prove himself. Jeremy Lin being drafted #1 or undrafted in hindsight probably changes nothing in the player he is today, which is a inconsistent and average pg in the league
wait a second, so you dont think getting noticed and being expected to play a starting role or a backup role affects your chance to play vs somebody who was undrafted? naming undrafted or late drafted players doesnt prove you point at all. what about all the other players that were drafted ahead of them who got their opportunity to play over the undrafted players? im sure thats an even larger number. bottom line is if people expect you to play well, you will get more chances and the benefit of the doubt. also some players who were undrafted or late drafted (i.e. parsons and lin) blossomed due to sheer luck of being on the right team at the right time. if the rockets werent expected to be a 30 win team in 2012-2013 parsons would have never gotten to play as many mins as he did early on and prove himself. lots of players dont even get a chance to prove themself. they just play in practice until their chance comes, which more times than not never does. then they end up playing overseas or giving up all together what the hell are you saying getting drafted or undrafted doesnt affect your chance to play. what are you smoking?
absolutely correct. What if the SF ahead of Parsons wasn't a defensive seive? What if we had a competent player rather than a shooter who cant shoot in Budinger? Parsons development may have been incredibly stalled. What if the knicks didn't have a million injuries to their PGs? You're then talking about at worst decent (yet erratic) bench player who would have simply just quit the game. It has alot to do with luck and timing of events. But being a top draft pick versus undrafted means that you are afforded more slack early on. There isn't any debate about it
I don't buy it. If you are brought into camp it doesn't matter where you are drafted. Only the guys on the very fringe get shafted by these like contract. Lin was a one in a million thing. The rockets would love if our first round draft pick was our go to backup big, but an undrafted guy won the spot and for good reason.
It's still exaggerated how much benefit there is to getting drafted other than the initial guranteed money you get. You might get babied a bit more if you are a high draft pick, but if you are actually not an NBA level player, teams are not going to hesitate to dump you within a year, and you will find yourself in situations like any other player trying to make a team drafted or undrafted. Teams these days give players so many chances in hopes of finding a gem that there are no excuses if you don't make the league. I mean for Christ's sake Joey Dorsey and Ish Smith were still on the roster in the preseason, there's like close zero possibility that you are a NBA level player, and you are shafted out of the league. When was the last time we hear about a guy that didn't make a roster in the NBA, tore up a foreign league and got signed back into an NBA and became a star. getting "lucky" like Parsons isn't exclusive to undrafted/second round picks, anyone can get lucky depending on the depth of roster and team needs and freak injuries and what not. I mean I can argue that Darko was really unlucky despite his high pick because of how stacked that Detroit team was at the time.
Players like Anthony Bennett would absolutely be out of the league if he was drafted say 50th. His contract and the supposed talent with high draft picks affords a grace period. Sometimes a year or two can make all the difference in terms of making another team take a punt on you. But point taken in the sense that if you're ****, you'll eventually be out of the league sooner or later
no they dont....do you know how many players only average 1-2 minutes per game? as the 3rd or 4th string pg? how many players only play garbage time minutes and then are waved at the end of the season? if you arent drafted it takes a series of events lining up for you to get an opportunity to even try to prove yourself. heaven forbid you have a bad day during that 1 in a million chance also, how many GMs are bad at their job. the fact that chandler parsons even went at the bottom of the 2nd round draft defeats your entire argument. he was drafted at the bottom of the 2nd round because people didnt think he had enough talent or potential. you think nobody looked through his scouting tape? peoples time is limited. they wont devote time to you if they dont believe you have the potential. theyd rather spend their time gambling on the people they initially believed are prospects.
You're exactly right. I have no doubt Lin has faced racism (I'm sure he heard his fair share of racial slurs from drunken college idiots during away games when he was in college) but Yao Ming had it much worse being a fob, remember when Shaq went on national television and said something like "Wang Zhu, whatever your name is, you want some of Shaq Fu?" And Lin came into the spotlight during a much more PR friendly era than Yao did.
Other than his reference to experiencing racism, what else has he portrayed himself as being a victim?
He was a finalist for the Bob Cousy award (given to the best PG in college basketball)...he put up 30 on Kemba Walker and UConn in a game where the UConn coach called Lin "the best guard on the court". Hard to say "he wasn't very good"...
But here's the thing...Yao grew up in China, where he faced zero racism. He wasn't denied opportunity because of his skin color. So when he came to the US and Shaq called him "Wang Zhu", Yao was already an adult and had no sensitivity to it. But Lin grew up in the US, and his skin color was probably a much bigger factor in his life and basketball career growing up. So yes, it's entirely possible that Yao received more name-calling when he came to America...but Lin dealt with discrimination for much of his basketball journey over his life...
What does this even mean? Are Dirk and Bird fans all white boys trying to live through their great white idols too? Are you going to tell me black people voted for Obama based on race only? Do you get the fact that you might actually be, you know, racist?
Jeremy Lin was the popular kid who had friends and a clique of buddies who go to bible study together. Yao was by himself. But Yao was always about the team and not about some agenda and he never played him as a victim of anything. others loved that and were drawn to him. He didn't turn the other cheek, he used his cheeks to smile and make friends. Here he is comforting a young girl who doesn't speak good english and wasn't let in the palo alto bible study clique. "Don't worry , you can be friends with me, Yao" Yao doesn't care what religion or race or if you are a rich kid in palo alto who's feelings got hurt because somebody called you names and the stupid cult that was created when you made a few buckets in a few weeks Yao doesn't even care if you are humans, his true personality and character show through he transcends all races cause he's real, unlike volvo driving popular kids in the race driven bible study For Houstonians and Houston Rocket fans and non-insecure people all over the world, thank you Yao Ming, you were always there <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jQY_QL_wvQU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Hold Me Like The River Jordan And I will then say to Thee You are my friend Carry me Like you are my brother Love me like a mother Will you be there? Weary Tell me will you hold me When wrong, will you scold me When lost will you find me? But they told me A man should be faithful And walk when not able And fight till the end But I'm only human
Don't expect a response to your question. He will just track back to lof this lof that, Lin sucks and play the same old song. People have their minds made up and there is no enlightenment or discussing about anything. As an aside, I feel this is part of a generational thing. Too many young knuckleheads these days who think they know everything in the age of Wikipedia. Summary of this thread: 1) Yao was beloved and for good reasons, both on and off the court. 2) Lin is not a great player and people are content to attack his personality and character with little evidence as an apparent extension of his game. "grew up rich, plays a victim, passive aggressive" 3) it's never fun to talk about racism in a sports forum in general but racism against Asians in particular is not recognized. If a poster questions if Lin actually experienced racism and you bring up examples you are just a crybaby and making him a victim for bringing it up. Nevermore the reason you brought it up. 4) anyone who is a fan of Lin because of his race ie) see someone who looks like you in the national spotlight, is apparently lower than dirt and should be publicly humiliated and/ or castrated.
Other than that documentary and a couple interviews from 2 years back, he hasn't. People on this board just hate him
The reason why his fans keep talking about race is that if Jeremy Lin was in a relay race, Mo Williams would catch up to him and steal his baton.
