There are a host of ways to view the sudden stardom of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin:
- As a great underdog tale;
- As a triumph of talent over stereotype;
- As a cultural shockwave that’s got many sportswriters tongue tied.
But the one storyline not being discussed is Lin as point man for a larger demographic shift that already is making its presence felt in youth leagues across the country.
Lin is a phenomenon precisely because of a lack of American-born Asian players, which makes his sudden arrival on the scene such a story. Plenty of players have come out of nowhere in the past — John Starks comes to mind — but Lin is the only Asian-American in the league at a point in American history when Asian-Americans are making up a greater and greater portion of the population.
And his athletic prowess comes as we are seeing a cultural shift in the way Asian-Americans are portrayed in the media. It wasn’t that long ago when Asians — whether Chinese, Korean or Indian — were portrayed solely as shopkeepers or academic nerds. (These stereotypes still exist, but they have grown more nuanced — Raj on The Big Bang Theory is both a projection of the stereotype and a critic of it.)
Today, we get the geek and shopkeeper, but also American spies, cops, mobsters, political operatives and other staples is American TV and film.
Lin breaks through another wall, however, and is likely part of a shift that will make his ethnic background a nonissue in the not-too-distant future.
I say this because I am sitting at youth league basketball game on a Saturday morning, watching to teams of third- and fourth-graders run up and down the court. The teams are about 40 percent Asian (South Brunswick, where I live, is about 20 percent Asian), with the best players on both teams — the most skilled at dribbling and passing, with the best court sense and athletic grace — being Asian Indians.
This is an obviously positive development, and one that should surprise no one. Talent has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, despite what sportswriters too often think. The kids who grow up on the court and work the hardest are the ones most likely to excel
Jeremy Lin, Chinese-American, Harvard graduate, undrafted journeyman, is proof of this. His novelty is both important and temporary in the best of ways.
Hank Kalet 