Even that idea is stupid. Lin isn't even an all star. No one is even contending that Lin should be an all star. The idea Rickets has that he has to be vigilant starting now lest the Yellow Peril vote in Lin over Rose with their whopping 1% of the population is just funny. The reason why Yao was voted in all those years is because he was the best center in the league. Most of the people who voted for him were white, statistically there can be no doubt about that. The second group were probably latinos. Then blacks. The number of Asian Americans who voted for him probably is somewhere in the area south of Jews who voted for him. Most of those years Yao was the leading vote getter in the USA. Even if it's hard try to process who that means voted him in. The majority of fans that Lin has brought into Stern's fold are whites and blacks who left over the years because the NBA sucks ass over. Look at the TV numbers and the tickets prices at MSG. It's not Asians who are constituting all that. Everyone is making fun of the dude who said Asian Americans dont care about Lin but he's not wrong. For example your girlfriend's Pakistani dad probably doesn't have the Linsanity. Certainly Taiwanese and Chinese Americans along with young Asian American sports and culture fans are on board but it's not like every Asian is.
As far as Asian anatomy there is a difference. Usually Asians are shorter and smaller in frame. I'm pretty sure however that the primary cause of less Asian-Americans in any of the major leagues is just attributed to not believing in oneself at an early age and not really taking steps to maximizing one's potential whereas (to be stereotypical/not racist) black kids at a young age play sports and even start training to maximize their physical boundaries.
This is a false stereotype. Asians are not shorter and smaller because they are Asian. They are shorter and smaller because of different nutrition in their diets. Yes, genetics are involved too, but possessing the gene that makes one Asian, does not cause shortness. So some Asians who claim "they are short because they are Asian" are wrong. They are short because either: 1) They grew up on a poor nutritional diet 2) Their parents were genetically shorter 3) Both. Look at Jeremy Lin's parents, they're both short, but because he and his brothers had access to better nutrition, they were able to grow taller than your average American.
By the way, the average height of white males during the Industrial Revolution was 5'6". There's also a theory out there that people who originated from more humid climates are generally shorter than those in drier climates.
Like Africans, Asians are not a single ethnicity. West Africans have very different physiologies from East Africans. Most American slaves were from West Africa and therefore have more dense fast twitch muscles which contributes to explosive movements like jumping and sprinting. East Africans are taller (including Sudanese the tallest people in the world) with longer limbs without the same twitch muscles and excel in long distance running. In Asia, China by itself has as much ethnic diversity as all of Europe (consider how different Spaniards are from Swedes). Northern Chinese are distinct from Southern Chinese and Southeast Asians. Japanese are a mix of at least 2 distinct ethnicities as are Taiwanese. Filipinos are a mixed race much like Latinos with native Austronesian, Chinese, Southeast Asian and European genes dating back hundreds of years. Looking at the statistics some Asians are tall... Northern Chinese are as tall as whites. Others are short such as Vietnamese and Filipinos. In Lin's case he is a mix of Northern Chinese and Taiwanese. One of his maternal grandparents were tall. His mother is 5'6" which is tall for her generation. Likewise 2 of Lin's brothers are short but he is tall. They all presumably had the same diet but inherited a different combination of genes. There are definitely differences between races. Generally Chinese do have shorter wingspans than Africans and their limbs are shorter. They do not have the same fast twitch muscles. They have less testosterone than blacks and fewer testosterone receptors than whites. They have denser fat in their skin which makes them look younger, gives them monolids and reveal less muscle definition. They are statistically 10 IQ points smarter than white Americans and 25 points smarter than Sub-Saharan Africans. The craniums, musculature, skeletal structure, hormones of Africans have hereditary differences from Asians. Obviously individual differences are greater than racial ones but there's a reason why greater than 70% of the NBA is black while they compose 13% of the population. Yeah Steve Kerr believes self segregation is a reason why there aren't more whites in the NBA as well. From what we've seen the major reasons in Lin's case is racism and institutional discrimination trying to push Asians away from sport by the black and white establishment. No amount of want to is going to get you in the system if coaches won't give you a chance. Lin had standout athleticism at the combine and impeccable playing history and no one would take a flyer on him. There's probably a bit of self segregation as well, traditionally Asian parents have stressed to their kids that white society would not give you a fair chance unless you had a degree or training that they needed. In Lin's case we find that is actually true.
The only reason there are fewer Asians in professional sports is that culturally sports is not high up on their priority list. But when they are interested like Olympic sports, golf, baseball, they can be very good. It's just a matter of priority and when that priority turns to sports then you get a pro like Lin. It's pretty simple. Hard work and talent will always lead to success whether it's in academics, business or anything in life. Why should sports be any different?
bloop, I have to go with gamer4life though. Genetics is only 1 aspect of height. There is something to be said about diet and nutrition for obtaining the full height though My parents are from Vietnam and I am a foot taller than my grandmother. She experienced malnutrition, when storms would kill the crops for the whole village. She would subsist on barely any food. Sometimes they would eat leaves from bushes and trees, not vegetables. As for meat for protein or dairy for calcium, you can forget it. Even Europeans are taller now, than when there constant food shortages and no nutrition. I know several vietnamese that born here and are taller than father and mother. Evem when I visited Vietnam, some of the younger generation have better nutrition are taller than the previous generation.
The Chinese have a sports system designed to build basketball players unfortunately they can't. You don't think china spent good money on yao?
It takes time to build a quality league. That's why they are now bring in the proper coaches and are really just starting the process. They weren't always competitive in the Olympics either until they brought in coaches who knew what they were doing and help them structure a winning program. In the next 5-10 years you'll see a very competitive league there and will see more and more talent going to the other leagues in the world.
Bloop, you are obviously a well educated man. Does your education/work involve the stuff you have been talking about? I agree with your views by the way, as do most of the scientific community regarding this issue of nature vs. nurture.
What happened to Landry Fields? He was a complete disaster the first 3 mins of the 2nd half. Somebody needs to screw his head back on.
