Lin Spins Out – ESPN crashes and burns

Jeremy and Amare, with 'Melo and JR coming soon

It’s only been about a week, and I am already very tired of all the different ways headline makers have attempted to be cute, clever, and alliterative in using (New York Knick’s point guard) Jeremy Lin’s last name in story headlines. The kid has become the biggest story of the year in the NBA, and in a world where sports talk radio is a 24/7 proposition, all the wags and pundits need something to talk about aside from the Peyton Manning soap opera.

It’s not surprising to me that it was only a matter of a short period of time before we saw the racial angle in some of those game stories with Lin.

We had "The Knicks Good Fortune" and an accompanying fortune cookie, in extremely poor taste. Then, the New York Post (one of the biggest rags in the country) had a sports page headline shouting "Amasian!" This apparently invoking the memory of the Amazin’ Mets, all the way back in the early 1960’s.

Who thought this was a good idea?

However, the worst one (so far?) occurred last night however, when ESPN sent out a NY Knick game story to folks with ESPN apps on mobile devices. The Knicks lost their game last night, and some genius came up with this one:

"Chink in the Armor"

How stupid and pathetic is that?

Hey, I get the fact that Lin’s Asian-American roots are a big part of the attraction, because we have never had someone of that background play in the NBA before, but whoever had the ultimate responsibility at ESPN for allowing that one out should be fired.

Does the media use other derogatory phrasing in describing black players? How about German, Croatian, Italian, Spanish, or Puerto Rican hoopsters?

There are many things about the Jeremy Lin story that have been fun to follow, but the hype is still just hype. This young man is not going into the Hall of Fame, trust me. He appears to be a marginal NBA talent who found himself in the center of a perfect storm when the Knicks needed a point guard. Lin is a hard working and very intelligent player, and made the most of an opportunity to play in what turned out to be the prefect system for him. Toss in the fact that it happened in New York, and it boosted him into the spotlight.

Does Lin have a chance to have a nice career in the NBA? Of course he does, but he’s going to have to work much harder to succeed going forward.

Lin has yet to play against any top teams except for the Laker’s, who were coming off a overtime game in Boston when they played the Knicks last week. Beyond that LA game, and the following game against Utah, the Knicks have played nothing but bottom feeders. As good as Lin has been, he’s turning the ball over a ton, his shooting is not very good, and he doesn’t seem to be able to go to his left very well. Teams have started to trap him up high, or force him into driving recklessly to the basket where he seems to get airborne, and more and more often throw the ball away. This is one of the biggest errors any player can make, and one no coach ever wants to see in his point guard.

Go left young man, go left

Things are about to change dramatically in New York, with Amare Stoudemire back, Carmelo Anthony ready to return, and JR Smith recently signed. We are about to see what Jeremy Lin will be able to do with some top of the line NBA talent available to pass to, and it may not be quite as easy as it was when no one knew who the heck he was?

One thing certain is that this has been great for New York Knick fans, and a great story for the media to cover.

Just stop the over the top hype, and quit the racist crap.