Linsanity Breaking Borders and Building New Fan Base

Linsanity Breaking Borders and Building New Fan Base
From February, 2012

            By this point, it’s hard to imagine you’ve missed it. After breaking several point-scoring records in his first seven plus games with the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin, the first Chinese-American and first Taiwanese-American NBA player, has risen to an unprecedented and undeniably legendary level of fame. He’s not only been on back-to-back Sports Illustrated covers, but been featured on the cover of two consecutive issues of TIME magazine and two consecutive front-pages of The New York Times. He has become the #1 trending topic on Twitter for the month of February, the most talked about person on ESPN, and despite the fact that half of New York can’t watch Knicks games due to a dispute with Time Warner Cable, the games with Lin starting have nearly doubled their highest ratings since they started covering the Knicks in 1989 (Keep in mind that the Knicks have had many legendary teams and dominant seasons between 1989 and 2012). Moreover, Lin’s jersey has become the #1 best selling jersey in the NBA. His road jersey has become the #2 best selling jersey in the NBA. The list of indicators proving the immensity of his fame could fill a book.

            What’s clear now that he Lin the real deal. The sustainability of his sensational statistics as the Knicks point guard are, however worth questioning. In his most recent game he got his first bad performance out of the way, proving he’s no superman by going just 1 for 11 in the Knicks loss to Miami. Still, Lin’s legendary point-scoring statistics have permanently marked him in the record books and in an international ESPN poll of over 50,000 sports fans in every country and every state, respondents were nearly five times more likely to claim Jeremy Lin's recent emergence as more impressive than Tim Tebows’. 83% chose Lin over Tebow, with all 50 states in agreement (even Colorado picking Lin over Tebow).

            The biggest story within this story has been Jeremy Lin’s fame in Chinese and Taiwanese communities worldwide. While Lin was born in Los Angeles and is the first Harvard graduate to play in the NBA in over half a century, both his parents were born in Taiwan. With jumbo-TVs and mega-screens set up in major population centers throughout Taiwan and China, millions of people, many disappointed by Yao Ming’s short tenure in the NBA and many more never before invested in American basketball, were all of a sudden plugged in. Newspapers throughout China and Taiwan have featured Jeremy Lin on the cover day after day after day. In America’s Chinatowns, New York City’s in particular of course, restaurants have been transformed into bars and huge groups of Chinese and Taiwanese-Americans have come together to root for Lin. At Knicks games, a suddenly huge Asian-American fan base is evident. Adults and kids of all races have made and brought creative signs to games and ESPN has had specials breaking down the best nicknames and slogans.

            Unfortunately, with every social breakthrough in the world, a dark side of stereotyping and racism is exposed. Jason Whitlock, a Fox Sports columnist was guilty of the worst of it. While he wrote a lengthy apology after the backlash, his tweet was beyond insensitive. After Lin scored 38-points, out dueling Kobe Bryant in-front of a sell out crowd at Madison Square Garden, Whitlock tweeted  “Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.” Other offensive remarks came from names as big as boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who wrote on his Twitter page that, "Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise." Of course, nobody of any skin color in the history of basketball has done in their first three, four, five, six or seven starts what Lin pulled off for the Knicks. On February 17, ESPN used a racial slur on its mobile website in the headline "Chink in the Armor" after Lin had nine turnovers in New York’s loss to the Hornets. The headline writer was fired but the damage was done. While the vast majority of the media and the public have dealt with Lin’s rise to stardom responsibly and respectfully, many have taken the low road. After Lin’s buzzer-beating victory in Toronto, the god-awful New York Post, for instance, printed on the cover of their back-page sports section the word “AMASIAN”. While this might not be considered racist, it sure is distasteful.

            The racism brought to light by Lin’s success pinpoints a historical issue in the NBA. For years, only whites were allowed to play. When blacks were finally allowed to play professional American sports like baseball and basketball, they faced racism incomparable to what Lin has faced- from death threats to boycotts to claims from fellow players that they would not play if blacks were allowed to play. Still, Lin’s emergence into a sport now dominated by African-Americans proves that racial bigotry and intolerance knows no limits. No matter the time period, when a member of a racial group enters an unfamiliar spotlight, the scumbags of society are going to be heard whether we like it or not.

            If there is any upside to the stereotyping and prejudice-pushing, it’s that it will only embolden and impassion the Asian and Asian-American communities rallying behind Lin. Much like bigotry aimed at Jackie Robinson gave African Americans in Brooklyn and nationwide greater reason to root for him, fans of Jeremy Lin will feel that there is something to prove by having a Taiwanese-American in the NBA.

As a Chinatown native wrote on a sign he brought to a Knicks game in New York last week, Lin is proving “Asians can drive” with his brilliant moves to the basket. Even if Asian-American communities are not empowered by the racism Lin’s stardom exposes, they can at least fight bad humor with good humor and work to bust stereotypes with clever signs like that.

            While the racially insensitivity in the media and blogosphere will continue to rear its ugly head as Lin play’s on, the hysteria inside and outside Asian and Asian-American communities will ride on one thing only: how well Lin plays from here on out. In Miami, he was double-teamed, prevented from driving to the basket and forced to turn the ball over again and again. Other teams will take the Heat’s approach. The question will be whether or not Lin is ready. Can he handle the pressure? Will his legend grow? He’s good. He’s damn good for that matter. But the most important question soon to be answered as opponents start to figure out his game is how good is he really?

            Yahoo Sports and The New York Times served as sources for this article’s information.