Jeremy Lin as a Santa Cruz Warrior on a Teacher Salary

• He could've waited and gone after other deals, or just wait for UFA with a year out. If he landed on a 5-8 mil contract, he was way better off. He had a shitty agent.
• Bev was a better fit, but if Lin was better he'd still start over Bev. If not, take 6MOTY award and dominate off the bench which he also never did...
• That wasn't a good contract for the Nets, it was good for Lin
• It makes you a racist if you can't be proud of people outside of your race. If you can only be proud of people of your race, thats definitely a form of racism.

Asians have a lot of role models to look up to. Those same Lin fans weren't around for Yao, who was a bona-fide superstar. Instead they fell in love with Lin who objectively was never ever going to be a superstar.

Lin fans were all bandwagon fans. They had no basketball objectivity and some even made comparisons of Lin to Michael Jordan.

Those fans delegitimize Lin, and turn him into a polarizing figure, and its not even his fault.

 

• I won't argue with your assertion that his agent was shitty. But how would he wait for UFA? Take a 1-year contract coming off Linsanity? Or take a year not playing basketball? Those don't seem like good approaches. Again, he signed the only contract he was offered...you can blame his agent for not successfully finding another offer, but the Knicks were very public about saying they would "match any offer" (obviously not anticipating the poison pill), so that was a deterrent for other teams to offer Lin a contract.
• The Lin vs. Bev debate has been played out ad nauseam so I don't think it would be productive to talk about it again.
• It ended up not being a good contract for the Nets because Lin got injured. But it was a pretty middle-of-the-road contract for a starting PG in the NBA at the time.
• Are you certain that Lin fans weren't proud of people outside of their race? Kobe Bryant was the most popular player in China.

Asian-Americans do not have a lot of role models to look up to (although admittedly it has been improving in recent years). Yao was not American. And despite that, I would say that most Lin fans were also Yao fans. Also, you are taking the extreme comments of a few (comparing Lin to MJ) and unfairly attributing it to all Lin fans.

I have never heard of fans delegitimizing a player. Can't imagine a GM or coach saying "I think Lin is a decent player who can help our team, but let's not sign him because his fans are annoying".

 

So back in HS Debate I remember we talk a lot about if you're refuting, make sure the arguments clash. I'm not seeing any direct clash to my bullets, therefore there's nothing to debate on the basketball side.

I don't know where the racial/ethnic argument came from. I don't support Lin out of racism, not even sure I even support or care about him directly.

That said, I'm do like that there's Lin, Yuta, Yao, Rui and etc in the NBA because it's nice to see representation as an Asian American. Think #OscarsoWhite when there's is a group that feel or is under represented. Some people get antagonistic and want to really push for representation because of belief that the system is rigged, while others just hope to see improvement over time, and if deserved, real representation.

 

• He was an RFA, he still had a guaranteed 1 year remaining on his contract. Just wait one season, pouting on the bench. It's what you get for choosing a shitty agent. I remember looking at his game KNOWING that it was not good enough for a contract that size. And his style of playing demands the ball in his hands. That's a terrible combination.
• Lin vs Bev debate ends at Bev would be on the bench if Lin was that much better. If you're a "star" player, you do NOT sit on the bench at the start of the game.
• Lin has earned maybe 2 years of his larger contracts. His sweet spot is maybe 4-7 mil/yr, with a very limited role.
• You mean most popular non-Chinese NBA player... Yao was obviously the man. He carried the Chinese flag during olympics...

As far as I'm concerned, you land here and play here, you're basically American.

Extreme comments by a few... Lets see. They compared Lin to Derrick Rose, even said Lin is better than Harden or more fun to watch... Basically, you knew they were Asian, they just started watching basketball because of Lin, and started talking like they knew basketball. And it came in droves. Use the search box, evidence is all over this forum. It's the worst form of racism I've seen from Asians, it's freaking embarrassing. None of those Lin fans are here now because they basically know they were on the wrong side of that. Back to soccer and baseball for them. The LOF abbreviation was created for a very good reason, they were not even fans of basketball.

There's no direct ties from the fans to contracts or playing time. But that's the only disconnect you can highlight. Otherwise, being marketable is a factor. Overhyped by fans and media, Lin was put in and out of starting lineups. At the end of the day it's a business which also depends quite a bit on merchandising. But the coach wants to win basketball games.

 

Indeed, no direct clash, yet with all those words you failed to mention the race factor and the dumb fans that marked his territories everywhere he went. It was a gigantic factor to him that I never want to see again. That distaste is enough to want him to just stay the hell away from basketball.

EDIT: Looking back, I do disagree on the points you made. He was emphatically underwhelming compared to the contracts he received. There were unfortunate injuries, but I saw them coming even as a Rocket. His style of driving into the paint at max speed was never going to set him up for a long career. Overall, cashing in is fine but performing up to expectations falls on your own shoulders at that point.

 

I don't care for Lin fans supporting him. I don't even care that much that his fans often made ridiculous claims like he's just as good as Harden.

What made them unbearable is the fact that every conversation ends up not about basketball, but about racism and victimhood. McHale is racist, Clutch is racist, Harden is racist, refs are racist, Byron Scott is racist etc.

Everytime Lin had a bad performance some jackass complains about race. Lin gets benched, some jackass complains about racism. Someone gets banned on the forum, people badmouth Clutch and moderators based on race.

 

You know, I'm honestly surprised more players don't make the move to overseas. Are they just not paying remotely competitively? Because if, for example, my options were:

A.) play in G League with best case scenario of league minimum contract in the NBA
B.) go play in China, Spain, Russia, Greece, etc but get paid like 5 million a year (I made that up) and get treated like an actual god?

Wouldn't be a hard choice for me personally. I've lived overseas. There are difficulties but there is also a whole lot of growing and learning a person can do in another culture.

Can't help but think of Steph Marbury.

 

****ed up. he should name names, and they should be dealt with.

 

This garbage shouldn’t be tolerated.

 

I call bullshit until someone else validates it. I don't trust Lin's word at all. If it is true then there should be some extremely lengthy suspensions

 

i wish he was lying but have experienced it myself and have friends who have as well. It’s far more common than it should be.

 

Well that's awful and while I believe you I don't trust Lin as he enjoys playing the victim far too often. Hopefully that this gets cleared up quickly because there's absolutely no place for that.

 

• You are saying that he should have played for another year on his NBA-minimum contract ($800K) instead of taking a 3-year-$25M contract? That's insane. Who would do that? $8M/year was a completely reasonable contract for a starting NBA PG...it wasn't superstar money, it was slightly above average starter money.
• Lin was not a star player, nor was he paid like one. Lin was on the bench because it was a better fit for the make-up of the team.
• Lin earned his $5M/year for his two years in Houston. He earned his $2M in Charlotte. He played well enough for his $12M in NJ considering how much salaries grew then...but agree that he didn't earn it because of his injuries.
• Yao was awesome. But you asserted that Lin fans weren't supportive of people outside of his race...and I'm saying that many Lin fans were also Kobe fans, so clearly they support players outside of being Asian.

I don't think Yao thinks of himself as American. Nor do I think Dirk thinks of himself as anything other than German. Etc.

Yep...extreme comments by a few vocal LOF. But MANY Lin fans (like myself) do not say anything close to those things. One of the things that makes me support Lin is the fact that he's been an underdog his entire career, and I love the underdog angle of his story.

Agreed.

 

Exactly what should be done

 

Doubt it was last year when he was playing in China
The nba said they are investigating this in the G league .
He should have mentioned who said it

 

Player who said it should be suspended.

 

Completely agree.

 

what if investigation finds absolutely no eviddence of Lin being called “Coronavirus”