Jeremy Lin is no Yao Ming

Lin is an undrafted 6’3 point guard who recently graduated from Harvard University. Ming is a 7’6 Chinese national and former number one overall draft pick with the Houston Rockets.

Yet the American-born Lin will soon join Ming in the NBA, having just signed a three year contract with his hometown Golden State Warriors.

Asians in the NBA, or any North American professional sports league for the matter, are as common as balmy winters in Minnesota; you just never see one. The ones that do come along, like Ming and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, are already established foreign-born stars, vehicles for the NBA and Major League Baseball to market their brands to global audiences, including immigrant communities in the United States.

I doubt Lin will receive any huge endorsement offers anytime soon. But that doesn’t make his achievements any less compelling: an unknown Asian American kid from California who played his butt off at Harvard and earned a spot with the Warriors thanks to pure merit and hard work. In other words, the stereotypical Asian American experience.

If the NBA really wants to reach Asian communities in the United States, perhaps they should keep an eye on Lin, especially if he gets really good.

Will he become the Asian Jackie Robinson for basketball? Too soon to tell. But like Robinson, he’s already seen the ugly side of the race barrier.

In an interview with CNN this weekend, Lin said he heard racial taunts throughout his career at Harvard. The only real surprise, he said, was the abuse he took as a freshman when he didn’t even play that much.

Lin took it in stride. “I accept it as part of the game,” he said. “They’re just trying to get into your head.”

It’s sad that Lin has to accept it as part of the game. Everyone expects a little trash talking. But racial taunts? Whatever happened to “your mother wears combat boots”?

Black players endured the same thing before breaking into baseball and basketball. Today, black players are the majority in the NBA. One can only assume (or perhaps hope) that fans don’t scream “nigger” at games. If they did, which player are they trying to mess with?

Here’s hoping Lin can excel in the NBA not as a novelty or race pioneer but as American kid who got game.

by Thomas Lee