What a great stroke of luck this winter for the National Basketball Association (NBA). After the walkout of 2011 that featured multimillionaires arguing with billionaires over their fair share of the league revenues, when most sports fans could not be coaxed away for the National Football League playoff games and the National Hockey League, enter phenom Jeremy Lin to save the face of the NBA. David Stern, the commissioner of the troubled NBA, could not have orchestrated better timing or story. In just 10 days, Lin goes from being an unknown point guard substitute, on the bubble with the New York Knicks, fearing he could be banished from the league any day, to superstar. Lin comes off the Knicks bench on February 4, 2012, to score at least 20 points in his first 3 starts, followed by a 38-point outburst against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on February 10, 2012. The best side to that story is Bryant claiming that he did not even know who Lin was before they played the Knicks. How humbling is that—to get outscored and beat by someone you’ve never heard of in the NBA.
Lin’s entrance into the NBA has been nothing short of spectacular. He scored 136 points in his first 5 NBA starts: the highest first 5-game point total in the NBA in almost 40 years. He goes from being an unknown backup player to the cover of Sports Illustrated 2 weeks in a row, along with the cover of Time magazine. Not bad for a guy who had to sleep on his teammate’s (Larry Fields) couch the night before his first NBA start and breakout game as he set New York on fire.
My hope is that he really isn’t just a flash in the pan whom no one will remember next season except for his short burst of stardom in February. Will Lin continue to be a prolific scorer once team defenses adjust to his high-energy point guard play? I really hope so. Why, you might ask? Because, like it or not, professional athletes are role models for a lot of kids. Even though many professional athletes don’t see it as their responsibility to conduct their lives in a responsible, respectable manner because of the kids that follow their careers. Check wording of sentence starting “Even though”—did you mean something like “Even though kids follow their careers, many professional athletes don’t see it as their responsibility to conduct their lives in a responsible, respectable manner”? Many players are not worried about how their actions might influence the youngsters who idolize and emulate them. That is why the Tim Tebows and the Jeremy Lins of the world are so valuable in professional sports. Their trajectories to stardom are great stories, and they are excellent role models. Yes, they break the stereotype of the professional athlete. They do not fit the image and are not too intimidated to speak out about their beliefs, even if it goes against popular sentiment.
Tebow followed a more traditional route to fame, steering his career to stardom through football at the University of Florida after being homeschooled. Lin’s career route was anything but routine. He is the first American-born player in the NBA of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. His early lessons in basketball came from his dad, Gei-ming, a computer engineer who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s. Lin developed into a pretty good high school basketball player, as his team won a state championship during his senior year. At that point in time, his ball handling, shooting skills, and quickness were either underdeveloped or ignored because he never received a single Division I college scholarship offer. So, he did what most other future NBA stars would do when short on career options: he went to Harvard University to study economics. Even though his talent led him to stardom in the Ivy League on the Harvard basketball team, he did not get drafted by the NBA.
Undaunted by the lack of interest from NBA teams, Lin went to the NBA Development League for the first of his 4 stints. In between those episodes in the development league, he tried out and made 2 teams: the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors. He was cut from both teams before landing with the Knicks. Then, in New York in the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar, Lin became star. It’s an American dream come true on one of the biggest sports stages in the world. Even though Lin studied hard and long enough to attend Harvard and get a great education, he was able to develop his game so that, at least for now, he can compete with the best. I hope he keeps slashing to the basket and shooting the lights out from 3-point range, as he has done during his first month of professional stardom. He is a great example of a student athlete in the mold of other Ivy Leaguers who have made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated, including Bill Bradley, Ken Dryden, Frank Shorter, and Calvin Hill.
Lin’s inspirational story does raise some interesting questions about college recruiting and the professional evaluation of college basketball talent. How can Lin play that well now and just come out of nowhere? I can’t help but wonder if Lin was just slow to develop his skills or was he just passed over because he didn’t fit the mold of an NBA prospect? Could the system be in need of major changes if it couldn’t identify a talent like Lin’s after multiple opportunities? The positive side to this story is that it just might convince other college players to stay in college for 4 years, study hard, and get a good education even if they do have star potential. Maybe the scouts will look a little harder at the players who go to the library after practice. There may be more economics majors who can play in the NBA.
Needless to say, I hope Jeremy Lin’s star continues to rise because his journey to the NBA is certainly admirable. He has contributed a lot to the NBA already and may have a lot more to give.
—Edward M. Wojtys, MD
Editor-in-Chief