(All he do is Lin, Lin, Lin...)
This year in sports has been all about heroes. Heroes from the most unexpected places. First it was Tebow-mania. And by now, unless you've been living under a rock, you have been rocked by the Lin-sanity. The Lin-sation. The Lin-derella Story.
This guy comes as the first American born Chinese/Taiwanese player to play in the NBA after going undrafted from Harvard in 2010. He bounced around with the Warriors and Clippers as well as the D-League before finally landing in New York. And the rest is history.
Sidenote: Just like Tim Tebow, I have my own opinion about how this Lin situation is going to play out in the future, but I'll keep that to myself. Let's just bask in this great story for now.
Let's put all the basketball statistics aside for a second. Let's put aside the fact that he's averaging more than 27 points and 8 assists per game. Look past that just for a second for me.
Why else is Lin taking this nation by storm? What makes him so Lin-credible? It's his attitude off the court. It's his story. It's the fact that his talent went unnoticed and overlooked for so long. Yet he remained true to himself. He knew he had to put his ego aside. He knew hard work and dedication to improving his skills would one day earn him the glory it's currently giving him. All the nights sleeping on couches would pay off one day. During almost every interview, Lin praises God. Much like Tebow. He is humble, seems to say all the right things and never forgets to credit his teammates. In his own words, Lin says "I've surrendered that to God. I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore."
God. Tebow brought religion into sports with his praise of God after every game. Win or lose. And now we have Lin doing the same (although the Knicks are undefeated ever since Lin started playing). As long as Lin stays true to himself, I think him and Tebow are very good role models for the younger generation. They know how to present themselves and they stay true to themselves as well.
All this hype made me wonder about something else. What if Jeremy Lin or Tim Tebow were Muslim? What if there was another athlete that made a huge impact like these two, said all the right things, presented himself the same way these two are, but praised God by saying "Allahu Akbar"? (direct translation: "God is great.")
Let's be honest, Muslims don't particularly hold a favorable view in the eyes of a lot of people. It's unjustified but that's just the way it is. But what if there was a highly talented Muslim athlete hyping up the whole country with their game. Would he be hyping up the country after all? Would sports sources like ESPN be all over him like they are for Lin, just as they were with Tebow? Or would he fly under the radar? Would he be ignored regardless of the crazy things he may have accomplished? I don't have any answers to these questions, nor do I have any solid predictions to share with you if we ever had a situation like that. It's just something that was on my mind. And it's slightly disappointing to me that in a nation where everyone is free and equal (in theory), a Muslim athlete would probably never get the same attention as Jeremy Lin or Tim Tebow simply because of his faith.
And I'm not even gonna go into how similar Christianity and Islam are lol...
But let's just live in the moment for now. Let's continue witnessing Lin do spectacular things on the court night in and night out. On the same token, let's not forget that this is an important issue. Let's not forget that the greatest injustices are happening right in our own country.
On a less serious note, Knicks nation is in a long lasting Lin-ter Wonderland due to the homie doing the Lin-tacular and the Lin-possible AGAIN last night. See below if you missed it. Deuces.
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