During the 2011-12 NBA season, the world was introduced to Jeremy Lin on a national stage as he wowed fans with his play for the New York Knicks. His spectacle of a season started on a 10-day contract and he eventually ended in the starting lineup. His string of games was nothing short of amazing as he led the Knicks on a win streak and his phenomenal play was labeled as “Linsanity” by fans.
However, Lin’s mass exposure in the NBA wasn’t just because of his play, but it was his Asain-American race that stood out to people. The Harvard graduate was just like any other point guard in the NBA, he could dribble, run, and shoot with the best of them. Lin was not only aware why the public gravitated towards him but had been facing stereotypes his whole life.
Following from Stefan Bondy of NY Daily News.
“I feel like Asian-American masculinity is one of the issues that should be talked about way more and I feel like is very behind the 8-ball,” he said. “So I think that to go to your point of being athletic, like me and John Wall were the fastest people in the draft but he was ‘athletic’ and I was ‘deceptively athletic,'” Lin said. “I’ve been deceptively ‘whatever’ my whole life. …That’s definitely an issue and we can just keep playing basketball. Hopefully we’ll just keep being good and breaking the stereotypes.”
