Lin is 6'4" with shoes on, 200lbs of pure muscle, has faster acceleration and a quicker 1st step than all but a handful of guys in the league, and a decent vertical. Sounds like a genetic freak to me...
Not relative to the rest of the NBA. Most people in the NBA are genetic freaks. Lin's lateral quickness and vertical are below average for NBA standards but his quickness is pretty much elite, which allows him to be above average in terms of athleticism.
I dispute that Lins lateral quickness is below average. I would say average. Look at anyone guarding Lin, their lateral quickness isn't up to snuff when guarding quick guards either. But his vertical is below average. The thing that makes Lin a good baller is his sound fundamentals on defense (save his penchant for getting lost at times and leaving his man for the open 3), i.e, great hand positioning and body positioning. Also the reason why he falls so much is that he maximizes his speed and agility to the point where it is almost impossible to recover. Quite remarkable to allow your body to put itself in danger, usually the mind doesn't allow it. And bad handles and all, he pushes the ball up court really fast. And of course his first step is wicked fast.
Wouldn't say Lin's vert is below avg. The guy has thrown down some decent dunks, but obviously he isn't a Westbrook or Rose.
If you can't do a dunk in game on two feet comfortably at 6'4", I don't think it's correct to say its decent in today's NBA.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QDa7dvf_5Ds" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Doing this at 6'4" with shoes looks about avg to me. Keep in mind Lin's wingspan is below avg compared to other players. He has a standing reach of 8'2" Jeff Teague is 6'1.5" with shoes but actually has a higher standing reach at 8'2.5" <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/t2WIZQVNJqY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Teague's vert is listed at 36.5" meaning Lin is probably somewhere in that ballpark, which actually isn't a bad vert at all.
Damn, just looked up D-Wade, he's .75 inches taller than Jeremy but has a 4" higher standing reach, dude has some long arms. I think Lin's short arms will limit him, he'll need to jump higher than most other players to do the same things, so in a way he is limited by his vert but not in the traditional sense.
I know right! What is with those ppl with arms that reach down to their knees! I used to play this guy with those arms, and he'll block me every time because he's 'deceptively' short. Sorry to digress but I just wanted to rant.
Concur, he had no trouble getting around Westbrook, Rubio and Curry whom are some of the quicker guards in the league. You can't dribble around these guys with below average lateral quickness. I think his quickness is deceptive.
let's not get carried away here. His attributes are not 'anomaly'. Lebron is an anomaly. Shaq is an anomaly.
Firstly, very few guys of any race have Lin's size and quickness. Being 6'3" and 200 lbs. would put you in the top 99.5 percentile of any racial group in terms of size. Secondly, there are plenty of Asian guys among the younger generation who are easily in the 6' to 6'3" range, which is all you need to have a fighting chance at being a PG. Thirdly, my point about Lin not being a "genetic freak" really has little to do with basketball. My point was that people look at a Yao Ming and see that his destiny was basketball (or maybe volleyball). His physical advantage over others is just so inherent that it's almost unfair. Lin, on the other, despite his quickness and slightly large size for a PG, does not represent sheer physical destiny. Yao easily towered over Shaq, while Lin enjoys no such genetic advantage over his rivals. This makes Lin's story applicable to all aspects of life, not just the extremely narrow realm of professional basketball or even sports. Way more so than Yao, Lin shows that stereotypes regarding race — in sports or education or business or social life — shouldn't be blindly accepted because the seemingly unremarkable Asian guy actually turns out to be a world class athlete who's "deceptively quick/strong".
You don't see the irony in claiming to know a guy's destiny just by looking at him? Don't judge a book by its cover. Liking a guy based on whether or not he has a "genetic advantage" is beyond dicey. It's illegal in some contexts. Maybe Lin is a "genetic freak" in some other way: really smart, or he'll live to be 100. You don't know and you don't care. I don't know what you're doing with all this talk of genes, but you're in over your head. Just say you like the guy and relax. You don't have to prove he's more admirable than Yao Ming.
Actually Andre Miller ran circles around WB all night last night. Speed is not the only thing. Good ball handle, body control and court vision goes a long, long way in this league. I hope Lin watched the Nuggets vs Thunder game last night and learned a little bit.
That's definitely arguable. Chen Jianghua is listed at 6'2" but maybe 6'1", which isn't a huge difference compared to Yao and other centers. The Lin now isn't the same as he was in Harvard since he improved overtime. Chen actually got invited to the high school ABCD camp back in 2005, and competed for the CNT years ago where Coach K complimented his game. The one thing that everyone was talking about when is coming to Chen was his speed and ability to attack, but that's about it.
The whole point is that there's a lot more athletes that are comparable to Lin as opposed to Yao Ming. Heck even Yi Jianlian is more an anamoly than Lin was. You couldn't even name one Asian guy comparable.
To be fair, there is some truth to being extremely tall having some sort of "destiny" associated with it... I refer you to this from Sports Illustrated... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1187806/index.htm In other words, if you're 7' or taller, assuming a normal bell curve distribution of height per the CDC's modelling, there's a slightly worse than 1 in 5 chance that you're a NBA center. That is pretty darn close to genetic destiny...
You're telling me 1 in 5 of the world's seven footers are in the NBA? I call BS. Even if you are correct, I don't call a 17% chance "destiny." A college applicant has an 18% chance of being admitted to Cornell, Georgetown, or Johns Hopkins. Is it destiny?
I hope so too. maybe one day lin will stop fearing urkel and score 29 points on him and the thunder. One can only dream.
