Lin-Tik

LIN-TIK Victorino P. Mapa He’s an overnight hero in Asia, spawning gosh- awful puns of his name, unabashed admiration, unceasing tweets and cover stories all over the world. Lin-sanity spawned countless cover stories and features reached such a fever pitch that NBA ran out of NYC his Number 17 Tee shirts. We’re, of course, referring to Jeremy Lin. If the name is still unfamiliar to you then you must be living in some other planet.. Lin entered the NBA through the back door. The Golden State Warriors took him on presumably to improve attendance,, that is, having an Asian American on a home team with a predominant Asian American population.The gate receipts did’nt improve. . The Warriors gave him for free to the Sacramento Kings, another cellar dweller. He was the best bench warmer for both teams. With some glee the Kings released him to the New York Knicks. The knicks were losing key players to injuries. The water boy was unavailable. So was the peanut vendor. In desperation the coach gave the ball to that Chinese guy sitting at the far end of the bench.His entry causes the knicks to win six games continuously. Lin fever was born. . The hooray and hoopla isn’t because Lin suddenly learned how to play overnight.. His dad, Gie Ming a compurer engineer was the basketball freak who showed his son films of Larry Bird , Kameel Abdul Jabbar and other NBA stars and taught young Jeremy the basics at the local YMCA. In High School he led his team to a State championship; in college he racked 30 points against the perennial NCAA contender, the University of Connecticut. But no one came knocking because he played for Harvard. Whartda…???? Harvard? You choose senators, justices and presidents from Harvard but not, nay never, ball players Like it or not he wa also a victim of racial stereotyping: To main street America you mine ball players from African Americans. Ever so often you can also get white guys like Larry Bird, Steve Nash. . But Asian? They may be computer geeks, did laundry or ran gourmet restaurants but play ball? No way Jose! The conventional wisdom is Asians can’t jump! Even Pinoys had their own perceived images. Hollywood during WWII was rife with war movies where Fiipino soldiers spoke pig-din English. Thanks to those John Wayne flicks . When I was fresh off the boat in San Francisco I always got left-handed praises , “Why, you speak English!!!” . If a Pinoy lives in Southern California he’s invariably asked the question, “were you Navy?” Even today old gezzers continue to ask the same question. The categorization continues to exist, albeit, slowly dying. For instance, Manny Pacquiao’s TV interviews and his mellifluous command of the english language is erasing that image. Many even opine that he sounds just like James Mason, but I’m digressing. Jeremy Lin is a great ballplaye. but he’s no Kobe Bryant. His star-status in American eyes stems from his being Asian., the novelty of having a 6 ft 3 Asian playing in the major league. Of late the hype has abated somewhat due to Lin temporarily sidelined by an injury and by the fact that the NY Knicks have been losing games oftener than the prosecution panel struggling to impeach Chief Justice Corona. If and when Jeremy Lin resumes dribbling fans will hopefully re-evalutate him whether or not he’s a good hoopster by his ability. Not because of his looks and/or race.