People who don’t know a triple-double from a
double-dribble know Jeremy Lin. The New York Knicks point guard
excites those bored by basketball.
People miss something special about Lin when they avert
their gaze from the basketball court to marvel over his outspoken
Christianity, the fact that the wearer of the NBA’s bestselling
jersey was sleeping on his brother’s couch earlier this month, or
the mathematical improbability of an NBA star who is not only
undrafted, and Asian, and a Harvard grad, but one has neither
tattoos covering his arms nor baby mamas in tow.
Count Lin as one who welcomes the outside-the-lines focus:
“What athletes do off the court is more impressive to
me than what they do on the court.” Lin’s play seems to rebut this:
his team, which had lost 11 of 13 prior to his insertion into the
starting line-up, is 9-3 since. Lin’s performance on the hardwood
is amazing. But who he is may actually overshadow how he
plays.
When numerous sports journalists made the horrible miscue
of using the clichéd phrase “chink in the armor” in relation to
Lin, the Asian-American athlete reacted graciously.
“They’ve apologized, and so from my end, I don’t care
anymore,” he said. “You have to learn to forgive, and I don’t even
think that was intentional.”
It’s not as though Lin is deracinated. He makes a point of
expressing his Taiwanese heritage, a thorn in the side of
the Communist Chinese who regard the island nation as a breakaway
province. In Taiwan, not heretofore regarded as
a basketball Mecca, a headmaster gave his 4,000 students a break
from the classroom to watch a basketball game halfway round the
planet featuring Lin. The principal explained,
“The students pleaded and I agreed to do this on an experimental
basis.” Be thankful that Lin, and not Dennis Rodman or Javaris
Crittenton, influences kids on the other side of the
globe.
Mr. Kim Kardashian, heckled in arenas across America for
his 72-day marriage to the trashy celebutante, found a voice of
support from his rival at the other end of Lincoln Tunnel. Kris
Humphries told ESPN
Radio that Lin offered encouragement to him
outside the New Jersey Nets’ locker room. “He just said, ‘Hey, I
don’t know why they boo you, but I think it’s crap, and you’re
playing really well.’ That was nice of him to say…. It’s nice to
see great things happen for nice people.”
One of the reasons the great player is a good person is
his faith.
“I just thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for that
shot,” explained Lin after hitting a game-winning three-pointer to
beat the Toronto Raptors. The twice-in-two-weeks Sports
Illustrated cover-boy laments the sudden loss of privacy but
welcomes the platform, which he vows to use to glorify God. He
reads the Bible before every game. He wears a wristband that says,
“In Jesus’ Name I Play.” He cites Romans 5:3-5 as a favorite
Biblical passage. He dreams of becoming a pastor after his
basketball days. The 23-year-old bachelor’s ideal mate “would
really love God and be a faithful Christian.”
Not everybody, apparently, likes an underdog.
“Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s
Asian,” undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather tweeted. “Black players
do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.” One
might tag Mayweather, headed to jail later this year for another
domestic battery conviction, as the anti-Jeremy Lin.
Perhaps it’s not a matter of the character overshadowing
the play, or the play overshadowing the character. Maybe they
complement one another rather than compete for our attention. Can
one really separate Lin’s work-hard, unselfish, team-first play
from his character? Who he is off the court helps explain what he
does on the court.
Charles Barkley declared in 1993 that athletes shouldn’t
be held up as role models. Nearly twenty years later, Jeremy
Lin begs to differ. “I think it’s important for any kid to have an
inspiration,” he recently told the New York Post. “I think
right now the way society’s going, I think role models are
important, and kids need direction.”
The Round Mound of Rebound was ridiculed but right. It is
nevertheless heartening to see a player make us rethink that
assertion.
