Now I know I haven't posted in two years however now that I'm done with college I'll have a lot more time to pay attention to my blog. So anyway I've decided to start blogging again because there has been a story this summer that really has peaked my interest. This is the story of Jeremy Lin.
Jeremy, if you haven't been paying attention to NBA summer league at all, had just gone toe-to-toe with the number 1 pick in the draft John Wall. The Mavericks were up against the Wizards a few days ago in the summer league. Wall had beaten Lin a few times in the first half with razzle dazzle drives however the forth quarter was all about Jeremy Lin. He blew past Wall for an easy layup, and then hit a huge 3 pointer right over him. Towards the end of the game when it was really getting close he was able to split Wall and a big man and then went on to an acrobatic 270 spin shot in which later he was called for the charge. Boy, everybody in the entire arena was angry about that call because by that time Jeremy Lin had gotten everybody on his side, including NBA scouts.
As I write this blog right now Jeremy Lin is on the verge of signing an NBA contract. In fact multiple teams have been interested in signing him. Who he's going to sign with I don't know but that's not the point of this post. I want to show how he's been able to get to this point with the "dream" coming true.
Jeremy Lin is a Taiwanese American who was born in California (Aug 1988). He started playing basketball because his father Gie Ming had picked up such a love for the game after coming to the states. In fact the entire family plays basketball including Jeremy's two brothers. From the get go Jeremy had extraordinary talent and became a very successful high school basketball player for Palo Alto high school. He led Palo Alto to a DII State championship his senior year over national powerhouse Mater Dei. Also he was the runaway pick for the Northern California DII state player of the year. Every publication in the Northern California area recognized that he was one of the best. Despite all of this Jeremy Lin received zero, I repeat, zero DI basketball scholarships. However he was offered a spot from Harvard but with no scholarship. Shortly after this teams like Berkley and Stanford offered walk on spots but it was to late Jeremy was destined to be a Crimson.
During his time with Harvard Lin was selected to be on the All-Ivy league 2nd team his sophomore year and 1st team his junior and senior years. Harvard also had it's best season ever during his senior year. Jeremy Lin I believe should go down as Harvard's best basketball player ever.
After finishing his degree in Economics at Harvard he put his name in the NBA draft. Some people were projecting him to be late-2nd round to undrafted. Now of course he went undrafted however Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson saw potential in him and right before the 2010 NBA draft ended he gave Jeremy a call to let him know he wants him on his summer league squad.
To be honest I didn't even know Jeremy Lin existed before his senior year at Harvard. I only started to take notice when I saw his 3o pt highlight he put against UConn. After watching those highlights I thought to my self, "this guy has got a chance in the NBA". Of course I later went searching scouting reports online about him and it seemed like the general consensus was that he wasn't athletic enough or have a good enough shot to have a chance in the NBA. But I kept watching the UConn highlights, and I see Jeremy blowing by guys off the dribble, hitting all sorts of jump shots, blocking shots, swarming his man defensively. I just couldn't understand where all these people were coming from. This is when I started wondering whether or not the fact Jeremy was Asian had any influence on these types of opinions. I didn't just watch the UConn game I watched him versus Boston College, Georgetown, Cornell. He always looked like he was the best player on the floor, even with Greg Monroe, Kemba Walker, Jerome Dyson. Going back to him being Asian, Jeremy himself feels like his ethnicity has caused people to over look his talents. In an interview with NPR Jeremy said being Asian definitely was a factor in his lack of recruitment coming out of high school. Even though Jeremy has proven he can dominate the top teams in college basketball scouts still question his ability to play at the next level. So I wanted to see what Jay Bilas, the NBA draft analyzer for ESPN, had to say about Jeremy Lin. Same thing, he wasn't athletic, but he has high basketball IQ (cause he's Asian and went to Harvard..joking), in the end he won't make the NBA. Wow I'm not surprised another person questioning his ability to play the game.
Jeremy has had to prove himself time and time again because nobody wants to give this kid a shot. Why? He's won everywhere he's gone, he has led his Harvard team to battle top teams in the nation. People want to question his athleticism but anybody who's watched him play intently knows he's plenty athletic.
Now we bring ourselves to the present where finally, after an impressive summer league performance, Jeremy has people finally believing in him. But man I just think to my self "What could've been for this guy". If a top D1 program had given him a chance and looked past his ethnicity, no doubt in my mind Jeremy would've been drafted. If an NBA team had given him a chance he could have possibly been a lottery pick. His road to the NBA would have been much easier with guaranteed playing time.
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