Is Jeremy Lin's race still a handicap? (rational responses only please)

Yao was a basketball great. We know that it is not because Lin is Asian that he is mediocre.

 

If race is an issue for Jeremy Lin, OP is contributing to make it an issue. Can Lin just be treated like a regular guy? On this board, obviously not. We see that Lowry and Dragic were not even valued enough to keep spots on the team, and they are similar in quality to Lin as PG's. If anything, Lin's race is an advantage. I don't think he would have got that contract if he were black or white. Anyway, this thread sucks.

 

We're doing this again folks?

 

OP is not making it an issue if it exists legitimately
Lin isn't treated like a normal guy

A normal California HS Player of the year would get some offers, Lin got zero sports scholarship offers. Harvard doesn't give sports scholarships

 

Berveley's defense did not put us back in the game. It is simply Parsons and Delfino "in a hot hand in a short minutes". And at that time, "Mavericks shoot averagely."
That is what is actually happening.

And at the end game of last 6 minutes, Mavericks shoot with high %, we barely come back by the drawing fouls from Hardens.

 

Every single person is biased, and that's just human nature, nothing right or wrong. No matter how hard you try, your judgement is always affected by your experience, knowledge, familiarity of the situation, environment you are comfortable with, and your personal feelings.

We are not computers, with same algorithm, business logic, and same input, you are going to get same output. If there are not enough data for computing, machines (correctly designed/implemented system) will not give you a definite answer. But we are different, we will apply everything we have, including our own bias, to draw a conclusion.

When I see posters claiming they are so objective, I will stop reading, because that statement alone is subjective. Race is part of our nature, and part of life. Sometimes I feel PC is way overdone here in the States, that it becomes lip service only. So you can't easily get a sincere discussion without someone becoming defensive quickly.

There are race-oriented biases, and some are just formed based on past experience or statistics. Of course it sounds wrong, but it's just inevitable. Why are we so afraid to admit this human nature?

My math isn't bad, actually quite good at school, but far from great or excellent. But once I solved some small problem during a meeting, in a math way, I was considered a math genius in the circle. Although I work with lots of very smart technology guys, I don't have to prove it again and again, and they just accept the notion I am very good at math. But I am not. Some may want to call that "positive bias", but it is a biased perception.

If Lin was another race, once he managed to beat top dog in a convincing way, MAYBE people would consider that his true potential, and he only needs consistency. If he then performed not as well, people might discuss what he should do to improve and REACH that untapped potential. Instead, Lin's great performance was considered fluke, and people jumped quickly to determine his ceilings. The approach is just different, and Lin has to prove again and again that wasn't fluke.

Not to blame anyone in the media, even myself, same race of Lin, and I love basketball, and used to play a little bit, am influenced by bias. I was excited and super surprised about Linsanity, but kept questioning whether that was a fluke. I like his character and desire to win, but I too, jump quickly to determine his ceiling and believed the best he could do is becoming an above average to pretty decent PG. I could be right but could be wrong too, as Lin has managed to prove many were wrong.

Am I a racist against my own race? Of course not. But why can't I discuss race, even my own? Why can't I face the fact, we are human beings, born to be biased?

 

Well, maybe its because they saw his SAT score being high enough for harvard? or maybe he had his heart set on going to harvard and therefore didn't apply for other scholarships or maybe other teams knew he was going there and figured they wouldnt waste offering a scholarship (since you have a limited amount you can offer) to a guy they knew wanted to go ivy league.

No, none of that, lets just jump to racism because you are clearly racist, just like the OP.

 

Gonna get locked. Should get moved to D&D.

 

Why make up reasons?
Google it instead of being ignorant
Lin desperately wanted to play in Cali but went to Harvard because he got no offers from anybody, and Harvard was the only school that gave him a chance to play (on no sports scholarship)

.

 

This is r****dED. Maybe it played a part coming out of HS and getting drafted. I'll give you that. But right now? C'mon man, this is getting out of hand.

I like how you preface it by saying, "I don't think he's a racist BUT...." How can people be so ignorant? So McHale doesn't trust Asians in the 4th quarter? Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Wow people like this make Asians look bad. Smh...

 

It's not hard racism like lynch mobs but it is soft racism. Mchale may not even be conscious of it.

His benching of a player who dropped 21 and 9 in 3 quarters against the same team just a few days earlier but instead opted for playing a rookie backup for 15 minutes straight with 0 pts. Soft racism.

Through his eyes mchale just "sees" something different with Bev, he doesn't quite know what it is, so he calls it "energy". Soft racism.

For McHale the game of basketball has always been black dominated with a few white exceptions that included himself and his teammate Larry Bird (and to some extent Bill Walton and Danny Ainge). I'm sure he took pride in that especially in Boston in the period of 70's and 80's (those of you old enough know what I am talking about with regards to race relations in Boston back then). To him an Asian man not having freak of nature physical attributes like Yao just doesn't really belong on the NBA floor. Soft racism.

Or alternatively mchale is just not that bright.

 

Because there is real racism in the world now and in the past. Not this fake racism that people try to apply to Lins case.

Real racism is people getting sprayed with hoses, attacked by police dogs and forced to use seperate facilities or being enslaved or murdered only because their race. Or maybe real racism is a gang of hill billy's strapping a black man to the back of their truck and dragging him to his death in Jasper Texas.

Real racism is NOT a group of white guys giving an asian man 25 million dollars to play a game.

 

I know one thing: a lot of fans like Lin only because of his race.

 

Rep.

 

I'm not a big fan of Lin's, but race has been an issue for him and likely always will be. People are natural to doubt, and since Asian PGs have never succeeded (or made it) in the NBA, the doubt will be there, whether people choose to admit it or not. Other players want to make sure they don't get shown up by him, and many coaches will have some doubt about whether he has what it takes. Just like say, a black man in a profession ruled by whites/asians, he has to prove himself more than the average person (to get respect from his fellow NBA players), even if this shouldn't be the case.

On the other side of the coin, race has played a positive role in his contract and on the business side. One could say that even if he gets doubted more than the average player, his appeal actually gave him the starting PG spot - and that's where business and basketball overlap.

 

Don't repeat the same idiocy spouted by Floyd Mayweather
Most of Lin's millions of fans are white, black, Hispanic families. You see tons of Lin jerseys worn by nonAsian people
Lin transcends race. People love an underdog story, overcoming struggles
People love stories like Rudy, Rocky, etc

And since you're probably too lazy to search, here are 2 articles about Lin being passed over by every single school. The only California HS Player of the Year to receive zero sports scholarship offers

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7574087/overlooking-jeremy-lin

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/s...asing-a-history-of-being-overlooked.html?_r=0

 

??? OP has repeated again and again to deny any suggestion of racism. So did I in my post, and yet you quoted me to deny racism?

Racial profiling is not racism, is natural human reaction towards different races, based on own experience. Therefore, people in single race countries tend to be more xenophobia, like East Asian nations. It's not racism, but rather some bias led by limited experience. Therefore, countries like Canada and US, especially large cities, where you are surrounded by people of different races every day, tend to be more informed and less racially biased.

 

Some black people are the biggest Jeremy Lin haters but then get upset when people still think black QB's are no good. It's ironic

.

 

McHale went with the lineup that helped him grab the lead. Its called playing the hot hand. Where was Asik or D-Mo? He's must be racist against European Whites. Right?

 

Yeah, Lin's race is so much more superior comparing to Wang Zizi's.