I joined mainly to talk about how awesome Chuck Hayes is. It was also around the time that Yao Ming was starting to emerge as a consistently dominant force in the paint. I remember when I joined it wasn't free (i.e. a tipjar donation was required). That's fine by me, because I started out as a Contributing Member with all the perks that entails.
I will never understand how someone that tall and could jump that high could be such an utter failure at basketball. Mindboggling.
I'm sure he could give Javale Mcgee a run for his money. Both of them being in the same room would probably create some sort of IQ vacuum causing the universe to collapse.
I came here well to lurk and follow offseason trade moves then I joined. lol lurkin for like 2 or 3 years.
So, some thoughts on this... At the end of the day it is rooted in racial identity. The reason why Lin's following is so different is because he's the first Asian American success in the NBA, and the first promising player that Asians can relate to (and in their wildest basketball dreams, think they could someday be like). Yao was a giant and a physical anomaly. Jeremy Lin plays a position where there have been several successful players below 6', and where physical bulk is not as important. Much more relatable. For Asians in the U.S., there's a deep-seeded frustration of being stereotyped as nerdy, socially awkward, studious but not "cool". Jeremy Lin is a big step in breaking this. An Asian NBA star? Went to Harvard? That has swag? That's big. For Asians outside of the U.S., it's about racial pride. Asians are a prideful people. Chinese and Taiwanese are no exception, and as an aside, it's kind of interesting seeing these two groups, often at odds, rallying around a somewhat unifying force. So at the end of the day, Jeremy Lin means a whole lot. All of that pride and hope gets focused in one single player. And if Jeremy has a bad stretch of games, some may see it as the dream of seeing a stereotype-breaking star disappearing. Now this is healthy to a certain degree. I want him to succeed for these very reasons. But for certain individuals, when something is that important to you, it becomes personal and Jeremy gets put on a pedestal. Criticisms of Jeremy, even though valid, are taken personally and/or deflected. Comments become irrational. And many of these will be people who did not follow basketball before. They're here for Jeremy and what his success would mean for racial pride and breaking stereotypes. That's why there are so many Lin-only fans. It's also why the arguing between LOF and LOH is so heated. Yes the context is basketball, but at its root, it's not actually about basketball. Just some food for thought.
i feel ya, ive thought the same things when comparing lin to yao. they were very different stories and players. i think that because basketball and football are the big sports right now in the US, it leads ignorant people to believe that those types of athletes are the greatest in the world. these two sports primarily have black and white athletes in them with certain builds, which also sets the stereotype of what an athlete should look like. ala big and tall
This is also why you don't see as many XOF for other players, not to the extent of Jeremy Lin. Black, white, latino and european athletes have been in American professional sports for a long time now. Any one specific player is not going to drum up racial or national pride at this point. I would also be willing to bet that the most rabid LOF are Asian. Based on spelling/grammar and usernames (asian last names and keywords that are related to what asian males like to do), I can probably get a good hit rate on guessing =P. Disclaimer: I'm an Asian male.
Clever Op has seen through the facades... It's true... I'm actually a VOF - as evidenced by my join date... I remain a member in the hopes that someday VSpan will return to continue his glorious NBA career! ;0)
I agree .... I had lurked here for over a decade before finally joining in the conversation and consider myself one of the true old school fans - I wonder how many other fans here have been to games played at venues such as at the Astro Hall or Sam Houston Coliseum or even the Summit .... Or remember 2 for 1 ticket coupons on packages of Mrs Baird bread wrappers and in the Houston Post. FFS Im old ....
I got into the Rockets because of Yao but only registered years after because I only found out about this board that year. I might have been a YOF early on but became a Rockets fan overtime, so I believe it could also happen to the LOFs.
I think part of the appeal is that hes just a genuinely nice guy. Theres been so many stars that have turned out to be absolute assholes(Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Ryan Giggs, etc.), that hes been a nice breath of fresh air in the sporting world. That and the underdog story. Everyone loves that.
Using join date to characterize poster is the same as racial profiling. "You must be doing this because you have this look." I joined this board when we drafted Yao (after having been a Rockets fan for more than 2 decades), not because I followed Yao to the Rockets, but because I wanted to get more information about this extremely tall dude from China. I wanted to know if we had wasted a #1 pick. I searched the internet and found this site... and got hooked.
