Linsanity breaks Asian stereotypes

Can Asians play basketball? This is a very new topic wether Asians can play basketball. For a long time now basketball has been know as an African American sport. There has been only one well known NBA player, Yao Ming from China. Athletics is not one of the main stereotypes of Asian people.

Jeremy Lin is a point guard for the New York Knicks. Lin attended Harvard and graduated in 2010 with a degree in economics with a 3.1 grade point average. Lin lead Harvard to their best record of all time. In his senior year he averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks. Lin finished his collegiate career with 1,450 points and set the record for most points at any Ivy League school. 

Lin began his NBA career as unrestricted free agent and signed with Golden State Warriors in 2010. This is interesting because the best of the best are picked by teams in the first and second rounds of the NBA draft. The rest of the players are unrestricted free agents, meaning if the player are willing, any team can sign them. Lin did not get much playing time for the Warriors. Before the 2011-2012 season Lin was claimed by the Rockets but was dropped the next day and picked up by the New York Knicks as a 3rd string point guard (meaning he would not be expecting much playing time). On February 4, 2012 Lin made his first start in his NBA career; he had 25 points, five rebounds, and seven assists (all career highs). Lin set the NBA record with 109 points in 4 starts. Lin pulled the Knicks out of a slump and got to prove his worth.

Before his first start Lin never had any recognition.

"Players playing that well don't usually come out of nowhere. It seems like they come out of nowhere, but if you can go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning. It probably just went unnoticed."

—Kobe Bryant, after Lin scored 38 points on February 10, 2012

I agree with Kobe and I think this will start a movement to recognize Asian players. With Asians as athletic role models there is a chance that the stereotypes Asians have held may change.