Jeremy Lin points to race for criticism
Insanity
Houston is still waiting for lift off. Or Linsanity. Or whatever that magic was last February when we saw an end-of-the-bench player transform into a global superstar and look like an All-Star point guard.
Lin hasn’t had a hoped-for fantastic start (averaging 11.9 points and 6.4 assists a game) in his first season with the Houston Rockets, the team that won the bidding war for Lin over the New York Knicks this summer and the team that ironically cut Lin when he was only known as a heady kid out of Harvard living from couch to couch.
From scathing reviews of his play saying the Rockets “overpaid” for the 24-year-old to an embarrassing air-ball in his team’s close loss to the Miami Heat earlier this week, Lin’s season has been everything short of spectacular.
In a revealing interview with Yahoo! Sports, Lin felt race was involved when asked about the criticism, saying he felt like he had to justify his contract (three-year, $25 million) and his heritage.
“I was a little surprised, but I wasn’t shocked. I honestly feel it’s part of the underlying issue of race in American society … of being an Asian-American. …I haven’t figured it out. I haven’t wrapped my head around it. But it’s something I’m thinking about.”
Lin said he was used to being a “target,” though because of his race.
“I’ve always been a target,” Lin says. “Everyone looks me and says, ‘I’m not going to let that Asian kid embarrass me. I’m going to go at him.’ That’s how it’s been my whole life. This has been different, though. Now, I was on the scouting report. People started to pay attention to what I could and couldn’t do.
“But a target? I was used to that. I’m not saying I get everyone’s best shot, but I would say people don’t want to be embarrassed by me because of my skin color.”
Lin also opened up about his time in New York in the Yahoo! Sports report, described how he fell under a state of depression because of the massive spotlight that was shining on him last season with the Knicks.
“I went into an absolute shell for a few months in New York,” Lin said. “I went through a phase when I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I didn’t want to talk to my friends. I didn’t want to give anybody close to me a chance to mess up our relationship. I saw how publicity and fame changed certain people around me, and changed how people looked at me. And I hated it.”
Harvard Baseball Team Lip Syncs Call Me Maybe
If you’re not living under a rock then you know that Carly Rae Jepsen song “Call Me Maybe” is everywhere. Take a look in Calvin Casey’s iPod and it’s there, search YouTube and you will find pretty much every college campus has a version, hell even Justin Bieber, Ashley Tisdale and the Biebs girlfriend Selena Gomez have lip synched to it.
Now comes the Harvard baseball team doing their rendition all the while teammate Jack Colton remains asleep. Look out for the wink, it steals the show.
Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin Player: Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin
Every Tuesday Sports Grind Entertainment presents you with the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin Player of the Week. This week the recipient of this prestigious honor goes to the New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin for bursting onto the NBA scene. Lin earned Eastern Conference player of the week after his first week as an NBA starter, where he averaged 27.3 points and 8.3 assists. This lead to the Knicks going 4-0 during that span.
The undrafted Harvard graduate’s 109 points are the most by an NBA player in his first four starts since the 1976-77 season, and he became the first player in NBA history to tally at least 20 points and seven assists in each of his first four starts.
Lin becomes the first player to win Player of the Week awards in the NBA and NBA Development League, where he was honored while playing for the Reno Bighorns.
Congratulations Jeremy Lin you are this weeks Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin Player.
Yale Quarterback, Had Rhodes Candidacy Suspended Due To Sexual Assault
Upon Further Review
Yale quarterback Patrick Witt seemed to be an exemplar of all that was right about collegiate athletics just a months ago as he was being eyed for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship. However a shocking report by The New York Times revealed that everything may not be what it seems. Upon learning that he had been named a finalist for the Rhodes scholarship in late October 2011, it seemed the biggest conundrum for Witt was choosing between traveling to Atlanta to interview for the scholarship or playing in Yale’s annual rivalry game against Harvard, “The Game,” which was scheduled for the same afternoon in November.
According to report by The New York Times, Witt’s decision between his Rhodes candidacy and “The Game” was not what it seemed. Although Witt ultimately released a statement indicating that he had withdrawn his Rhodes application in order to participate in the Yale-Harvard game, the Times reports that Witt’s candidacy had actually been suspended due to a report that the quarterback had been accused of sexual assault by a female student in September 2011.
What makes the New York Times article all that more sticking is that the Yale Daily News, the nation’s oldest college daily paper, was aware of the allegation of sexual assault against Witt and chose not to report the story despite all the attention being heaped on the quarterback. The paper continued to avoid the story even after they were notified that the Times was going to be publishing its own piece about the sexual assault and the timeline of Witt’s Rhodes candidacy.
