Corey Adams

Business Manager

   The story of an Asian-American Harvard graduate who overcame the ignorance of college and NBA coaches all across America has had a tremendous impact on not only the New York Knicks, but the entire NBA as well as in many Asian countries. For a long time, many Asian-Americans seemed to have an uncertain place in athletic contests such as basketball and football. Jeremy Lin’s story serves as a prime example of why these Asian-American prejudices are beginning to fade.

    In Lin’s high school career, he captained Palo Alto High School, a highly-competitive high school team in Los Angeles, to a 32-1 record, while upsetting nationally ranked teams. He was named first-team All-State as well as Northern California Division II Player of the Year. Even with these accomplishments under his belt, many colleges were skeptical of Lin’s abilities, perhaps because of his ethnicity.

    During his recruiting process, he sent resumes and highlight reels to all the Ivy League schools, the University of California, and his personal favorites, UCLA and Stanford. Many of these schools wanted him to walk-on, with no scholarship. Harvard and Brown were the only two teams that guaranteed him a spot on their basketball team. Lin chose Harvard, primarily for academics. He could not achieve an athletic scholarship because Ivy League schools aren’t allowed to hand out athletic scholarships. Throughout his basketball career at Harvard, Lin was a crucial player in the Ivy League, averaging 16.4 points his senior year. For the season, Harvard set numerous records including wins, non-conference wins, and home wins.

    When college ended for Lin in 2010, he had a economics degree and a 3.1 GPA. He went undrafted in the NBA following his graduation. He claimed that the predraft tryouts were “one on one or two on two or three on three, and that’s not where I excel. I’ve never played basketball like that.” Lin went on to a summer league mini-camp where he excelled in a game against John Wall, the overall first round draft pick. Lin got noticed by challenging Wall and putting up 13 points. Shortly after, he received offers to sign from the Mavericks, Lakers, and Warriors. Lin went on to sit the bench for the Warriors.

    Eventually traded to the New York Knicks, Lin was the backup behind Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby after after an injury to guard Iman Shumpert. After the first 23 games with the Knicks, Lin was put in the game to replace other injured athletes. Lin unexpectedly lead a turnaround to a team with a struggling record. Since that game, Lin has been the spotlight of every game, the Knicks have gone 7-0, and fans from all around the world have grown to love Jeremy. Lin has made a statement for Asian-American people and sparked “Linsanity.” The Associated Press called Lin “the most surprising story in the NBA.” Everyone seems to love him, especially his homelands. His recent success has brought basketball to foreign countries such as Korea and China, who were otherwise uninterested... until they caught “Linsanity.”