The rising stardom of the New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has brought a lot of racial controversy to Asian American basketball players in mainstream media. All of the current NBA stars (with the exception of Lin) and the upcoming stars are African American. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade are all exceptional basketball players who consistently play well. Lin, however, doesn’t have your typical story of his rise to fame. He’s Harvard alumni, a player in the D League, and a player who came in off the bench to average 20 points and 9 assists in his last nine starts.
All of those stats are getting praised by Americans and Asians, or are they? Many skeptics have said that Jeremy Lin’s fame has come because he’s not a black player. Floyd Mayweather, a well-known African American boxer, says on Twitter:
“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.”
Personally, I feel this is an example of sheer ignorance. The American dream is based on Jeremy Lin’s Cinderella story, coming from nothing to something overnight.
Unknown. "Floyd Mayweather Thinks Jeremy Lin Is Hyped Because He's Asian (And That's Okay)." SBNation.com. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2012/2/14/2797594/jeremy-lin-new-york-knicks-floyd-mayweather>.
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