Lin's probably been through more hardships getting to the NBA as anyone. I am not a 100% Lin believer, but at least get your analysis right. He plays hard and is looking for his shot the majority of the time. You can question his judgement but definitely not his toughness.
I question it on the court. His body language on the court is horrible when he has no confidence in his game. He looks to pass immediately if he misses a few jumpers in a row.
Are you drunk? The kid comes from a good family and went to Harvard. What hardships did he go through exactly?
as racist as this country is, do you really have a hard time figuring out how an asian basketball player would have hardship making it into the NBA?
Is this post serious? Lin HAS NOT gone through more hardships getting to the NBA than anyone else. This is such a STUPID post. Ever heard of a guy called Patrick Beverley? He starts for you know... the Houston Rockets? This guy has been through hardships that Lin can only dream of. In terms of going through hardships, Lin has had a relatively cushy life. From UDFA to Linsanity to a very nice contract. Meanwhile, Beverley grew up in a crap neighborhood, got kicked out of school (his fault on that), couldn't land a roster spot in the NBA, went to Russia to develop his game, finally made it into the NBA through the Rockets, seized every opportunity given to him with ballsy gusto, and in the end took the starting spot. This is a TRUE underdog story. Lin's "hardships" pale greatly in comparison as far as I am concerned.
the question isn't whether or not they can play together; they obviously can, but would require a certain type of system and playing style. are people forgetting that last year, during a stretch of games, people were calling this the best backcourt in the nba, avg. close to 50pt and 20 assists per game between the two of them? but that was last year's team with vastly different personnel. the question is - what kind of system, given the personnel on the team now, do the coaches (and really, morey) want to play? and how does harden want to play? do they want a two guard system with both lin and harden taking turns attacking from either side? this was actually brought up by morey last year, but would require a solid stretch four and a center that doesn't ask for the ball every time down the floor. you need a lot of spacing for this type of offense. or do they want a system relying on one attacking guard and a dominant big, surrounded by bunch of 3pt shooters? well, we know what the obvious answer is, given the two franchise players we have on the team. and that's why it makes sense to have jeremy come off the bench. our bench, given enough time to gel, has the potential to be a starting unit for a borderline playoff team. they're just not there yet. asik has only been back a few months, and the inconsistent playing time for garcia, casspi, and hamilton doesn't help either. so can lin be a good player with another all-star on the team? yes. linsanity didn't die once melo came back. his scoring went down because you need to give melo his shots as well. and he no longer needed to carry the offensive load on the team, since melo can do a lot of that as well. it's just that on this team, on the starting unit, in this system next to harden, lin is redundant. on another team with other stars, each playing to their strength without overlapping each other, he can be effective.
well, he certainly didn't do that (pass immediately if he misses a few jumpers) in the last game and got roasted in the game thread for taking too many jumpers. i for one was actually happy to see that; the shots didn't go in, but he was determined to shoot his way out of it. a little bit of that chucker attitude from him is good see once in a while. if he's going to be an effective 6th man, he's gonna have to embrace that attitude a bit more.
What does racism have to do with Lin dribbling uncontrollably into traffic or a 4 on 1 fast-break and dumping a pass at Asik's feet for a turnover? Racism is not a relevant BBall discussion and should probably be moved to the Hangout. Racism is not what kept Jeremy Lin out of the NBA. He got signed his first year out of college as an un-drafted free agent, and was given an opportunity with the GS Warriors. That's more opportunity that most dedicated basketball players will ever get in their lives. What hardships Lin had mostly were derived from the fact that in the opportunity given by the Warriors, Lin did not overly make a case to keep his spot when he only shot 38% from the field, 20% from 3 point range, scored 2.6 PPG in 9 MPG, and couldn't beat out Acie Law for backup PG minutes in practice. With only 3 PG's on their roster, its safe to say that their coaching staff saw plenty of Jeremy Lin and there was most likely no racial bias in their decision to let him go other than the fact that they needed to cut a non-guaranteed contract, and Lin was first on the chopping block because of that contract. ^same with his first stint with the Rockets, but he did not have more than a few preseason games to impress, and didn't make a big enough case obviously to justify. Again, the reason for being cut had more to do with his contract than the color of his skin. Than he landed with the Knicks and the rest is history. So again... please explain to me how racism has anything to do with holding Jeremy Lin back as an NBA player? Actually dont... move that conversation to the hangout separate from actual basketball discussion.
I just never get this entire racism persecution sob story that so many Lin fans keep attempting to trot out, how Lin had to overcome so many obstacles so poor, poor him. That's just flat BULL****. First of all, you think Les, someone who loved and was loved by Yao, would stand for racism? I personally don't think so. From a hardships standpoint, like I pointed out earlier, on our VERY OWN TEAM, there is a player who makes Lin's career look like a Cinderella story.
I find the charge of racism in league where 95% of the labor is not white caucasian male to be quite laughable.
Just read the first post and clicked to last, what's all this stuff about "race"? OP didn't mention a single thing about it.
Try reading the last few pages? Lin fans always try to throw in the race card which makes zero sense, unless their argument was that if Lin was not Asian, Linsanity would not have been nearly as big as it was. That is the only VALID race card that can be played as far as I am concerned about Lin.
I recall a prominent newspaper in New stating he was "Chink" in the armor of the Knicks. BTW I am white. I have personally heard racial slurs when people speak about him. Different people incur different types of racism. Les has nothing to do with the racism any rocket experiences, and I am sure many rocket players have experienced racism. An understanding heart is important when you deal with issues like this.
I agree the charges of racism regarding Lin are overblown, but this is ridiculous. Racism does not exist solely between black and white.
I never said it did. My point is that the claim that Lin had to deal with more/less racism than any of the other non white caucasions is silly.
The race card is definitely overblown but this argument is very naïve and unsophisticated. Just because the NBA is 95% black does not mean that Lin has not experienced discriminatory behavior on account of his race. There's also a difference between overt racism and covert racism. Calling Lin a ch*nk is overt racism; treating him subconsciously differently (e.g., subconsciously thinking that he's not athletic) because he's Asian is more covert, and often imperceptible. Until you've ever been a minority (say, the one white person in a group of non-whites or the one male in a group of women), it's hard to grasp how subtle discrimination is.
