It's also human nature. Self-righteous moralizing to the side, people are attracted to people with common ground. There is an NBA player with a last name very similar to mine. His home country borders mine. From the moment I saw his name, I felt an affinity and wanted to see him play, in addition to the intrigue of an NBA guy from over there. When he plays the Rockets, I want him to lose. Otherwise, it's so cool to see someone from close to home on an NBA court. If you believe I am "stupid and simple-minded" for that, perhaps it takes one to know one. And the same people who are giddy for their countrymen *do* respect and admire *others*, regardless of ethnic background, based on what they do. It is "both/and", not "either/or", in the overwhelming majority of cases. It's always easy to spout mores without seeing where people are coming from. But, by all means, preach on brother!
Yes! I love Keyspan. And I go to Yankee games for the same reason you do! Not because of some player, but because I love the game. That was sort of the point of my initial post. Although you couldn't pay me to go to that triple A park in Queens!
Its one thing to think its cool to see someone close to home on a NBA court, its a whole other thing to go nuts idolizing him.
As somebody with a lot semitic friends I agree, which is why I cried when Juwon went down last night.
People don't root for athletes because they "work hard" or whatever. They root for them because they can perform on the court or the field (that's above and beyond all other factors like race, or location). If Shaq didn't need to practice or work hard, but could still dominate the league, nobody would care. It's only when he stopped winning championships that "working hard" suddenly became such a big issue. And if Yao wasn't any good, then he wouldn't have a legion of fans. To say that popularity should only be based on these admirable character traits is naive indeed, and patently untrue in reality. Popularity to is based mainly on: 1. Performance or potential for performance 2. An identifier between the athlete and the fan. These come in many forms, home town, personality or playing style of the athlete etc. What Agent86 decries as a poor reason for following a player; nationality, is simply one of many identifiers that people can have towards a "sports hero". If it's stupid and narrow minded to root for a player based on nationality, then rooting for a player because they play for your home town, or because they are just plain good is just as stupid or narrow minded.
Yao is hardly the first celebrity to be idolized. If you also feel it's stupid for people to idolize rock stars or actors/actresses, then fine. At least you'd be across the board with your feelings.
I suppose if the movie, "Rocky", had a black as in the lead role - it would be just as popular? Don't be an arrogant a-hole. You don't know about the racism I have faced simply because of skin color.
You all make good points and I do take back my “stupid and simple minded statement” Ill just leave it at this. There are many things that make up who a person is. Some you can control, others you can’t. I just think people should be judged on what they can control and not what they can’t. Everyone here has been a victim of not being given fair chance and having someone else being ahead of you based on something neither of you have control over.
are you really bothered by it? you know those people paid to get in right.. anyone can watch the game for whatever reason.. and anyone can go home for whatever reason as well.. I really don't see the big deal in poeple wanting to see someone they can relate to.. this is same thing with people who live in the US cheering for their home countries in the olympics even if they hav no interest in sports at all.. or people cheering for women from the same country in beauty pageants wether they are the best looking or not.. or people watching american idol cheering someone from their homestate wether they sing good or bad.. it looks like you just have something against a big group of asians being able to watch a game..
Who are you to make comments like that? I don't care if you're Chinese but that's just plain racism. I'm sure the SamFisher types love those sort of comments. I'm Chinese and played in a variety of high school sports and do, in fact, consider myself manly. Didn't Chinese men get a bunch of medals in the last Olympics? Can I make a claim that blacks are not very educated and don't speak good English? Would that be an unfounded, racist remark? Hell yes!
I dont speak the way things are, I speak the way they should be. If you have gone though the racism then you should agree with me.
Sorry about that name-calling. I suppose you can call me an angry asian man =) I just think that it is natural to root for someone you feel that you have something in common with. And skin color does determine how we are perceived - and thus a lot of what we are. Even though I was born in the USA, I've had countless number of people tell to go back to my own country. I can only surmise that they are incorrectly deducing my place of origin by my appearance. I just simply think that if Yao attracts a large Asian fan base, then so be it. I know the situation is not a good parallel - but I honestly believe that Jackie Robinson was the more important athlete in American history. He had a very large black fan base and I see nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, I hate the Chinese, which means that I love those types of comments. I'm surprised that my visceral hatred toward the Sino set has been camouflaged for so long, I mean, I've been throwing out some pretty inflammatory statements, you know? Anyway, now that I've been found out I'm going to go beat up the unathletic chinese individual in the office down the hall. Ha ha ha, he is so unmanly. Hey PRC all you 600 milllion males, I laugh haughtily at your unmanliness! Why, I swill beer by the gallon and beat up stip club bouncers for fun before taking home the girls of my choice! Hey, Hu Jintao, where are you? I could beat your pencilneck technochrat party cadre ass from one end of Tiananmen Square to the other. Oh, and Jiang, don't laugh, I'm saving an ass-kicking for you too! You guys want to stop me? Ha ha, you and what People's Liberation Army? I am laughing, laughing, laughing right now! You will need all three kingdoms to stop me, and there is going to be nothing romantic about it. I'M CALLING YOU OUT! (and for those of you who aren't native speakers, I am kidding and being sarcastic. Ridiculous unspecified allegations of racism tend to bring that out)
What does this mean then when you are agreeing with Sishir? Are you implying that Chinese AND Jews are unathletic and feminine? Can you clarify? I'm not saying that you hate the Chinese. I do think that the above post does prove that you do have preconceived notions of our (my) masculinity.
LMAO at the google ads in this thread 4 Fun Fiesta Parties, The Tao of Yao, and the best one, Mexican rugs- Date Hundreds of Thousands of Singles from Other Races, Cultures
There's a longstanding joke among jewish comedians that they aren't good athletes (e.g. "Sir, would you like some reading material . . . how about this pamphlet on famous Jewish Sports Legends" - (props to anybody who remembers what movie that's from) as well as last week's episode of South Park (Kyle was cut from the basketball team because he was Jewish)) - so that's what I was referring to.
The key to no longer being a victim is allowing the past to color neither your view of the present nor your future.
