Final Results of the Recent Jeremy Lin Polls

In the recent poll in which I asked people to give their primary reason behind the Jeremy Lin hype, almost half of you said it's due to the underdog factor. Here are the final results:

The "underdog" factor: 46%
His talent: 26%
His race: 20%
The fact that he plays in New York: 6%

Although I think Lin's race is the primary factor for the hype, I don't feel it's by an overwhelming margin.  If I had to break down the reasons behind Lin hype percentage-wise, I'd say it was 35% race, 30% each talent and the "underdog" factor, and 5% because he plays in NY.

I look forward to the day when seeing Asian stars in the NBA is a common occurrence. In addition to Jeremy Lin's success possibly being a gateway for more Asian players into the NBA, I think it'll also cause coaches to look a little closer at the end of their respective benches. For all they know, the next Jeremy Lin (regardless of race) could be riding the pine just waiting for a chance to shine.

Below are the results for the second poll in which I asked for your thoughts on ESPN's disciplanary actions against Anthony Federico and Max Bretos for their use of the term "chink in the armor" (on ESPN's mobile website and ESPNews, respectively):

Federico deserved to be fired:	57%
Federico should have been suspended:	0%
Bretos deserved to be suspended:	14%
Bretos should have been fired:	0%
No action should have been taken against Federico	:  28%
No action should have been taken against Bretos:	28%

I wavered on the Federico portion of this poll. Although part of me thinks he deserved to be fired, I wouldn't have been up in arms if ESPN had just suspended him. On the one hand, Federico's actions could have been intentional. However, it's also possible that this was a simple case of ignorance.

As for Bretos, I think he got caught in the crosshairs of ESPN not wanting this to spiral out of control. Since he was speaking on live TV about a legitimate question regarding Lin's play, I think ESPN should have cut him a bit more slack. Bretos only has about a week left on his suspension. Best wishes to him for when he does return to the airwaves.

Thanks to all of you who participated in and commented on these polls.

Please Take A Moment To Vote In the Two Jeremy Lin Polls ... Thank You

Please note that this post is "future dated" because it's poll-related. For posts which were written after this one, but have their actual date attached to them, please scroll down. Thank you.

Ever since "Linsanity" took the world by storm, I've been planning on writing a post about the man who inspired the term... New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. As of this writing, the New York Knicks are 8-1 since February 4 (the date Lin began playing substantial minutes for them). The superb numbers Lin has put up in his first eight NBA starts had the crew on NBA Sunday comparing his stats to the first 8 pro starts of Hall of Fame point guards Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and John Stockton.

Lin's success hasn't gone unnoticed by the non-sports media either, receiving coverage on regular newscasts, inspiring jokes by late night TV hosts, as well as a skit on the 2/18 edition of SNL. The meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin and the way his success has captured the imagination of sports fans and non-fans alike is a combination we don't see too often in sports. The other similar instances in my lifetime that come to mind are Mark "The Bird" Fidrych and William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

Jeremy Lin's "out-of-nowhere" success is all the more amazing given his previous "underdog" status:

• Despite being named first-team All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year during his senior year in high school, Lin failed to receive any college athletic scholarship offers. He wound up attending Harvard (which like other Ivy League schools, does not offer athletic scholarships)

• Although he had a successful hoops career at Harvard, Lin was undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft

• After his first year, he was waived by the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets in the preseason before joining the Knicks early in the 2011-2012 season. 

• The Knicks considered releasing Lin before his contract became guaranteed on February 10 so they could sign a new player.

Because Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history, his phenomenal success has brought the often uncomfortable subject of race into the conversation. On Lin's Wikipedia page, there already is a section on the racial issues that have come up before and after Lin's rise to prominence in the NBA.

Two of the stories which have arisen in the wake of "Linsanity" are the subject of the two poll questions I've posted. One involves whether or not the Jeremy Lin hype is caused by race. The question first arose after heavyweight boxer Floyd Mayweather wrote the following on his Twitter page, "Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."

The other poll deals with ESPN firing one employee and suspending another over the use of the term "chink in the armor" in relation to Lin.  On the night of February 18, Anthony Federico posted the following headline on ESPN’s mobile website: "Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin's 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-Snapping Loss to Hornets." By Sunday afternoon, Federico was cut loose by ESPN. Also on 2/18, ESPNews television personality Max Bretos posed the following question about Lin live on the air: "If there is a chink in the armor, where can he improve his game?" As a result, Bretos was given a 30-day suspension.

After voting in the polls, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. In the clip below, the panel of ESPN First Take discuss the role that race plays in the Jeremy Lin hype.

Racist Incident Ruins A High School Basketball Game in Pittsburgh

From Yahoo! Sports

By Cameron Smith

Vile racism raised its ugly head during a boys basketball game near Pittsburgh on Friday when fans of a nearly all-white suburban school ran on the court in banana suits and made monkey noises to taunt the players for their rivals, who play for a school which is predominantly African-American.

As reported by a variety of Pittsburgh media outlets, the Monessen Valley Independent and WPXI prominent among them, the annual basketball rivalry game between Pittsburgh (Pa.) Brentwood High and Monessen (Pa.) High turned extremely ugly when the two teams tried to head to their respective locker rooms for halftime. Before the players could leave the floor, three fans from the visiting Brentwood student section ran onto the court in full-body banana suits.


The fans surrounded the Monessen players and allegedly began making monkey noises and hurling racial epithets at the Monessen players, with no one entering the fray to stop the horribly inappropriate catcalls.

"I was appalled and shocked," Monessen parent Terri Payne told WPXI. "I was like, 'I can't believe they're doing that, and they didn't do anything about it.'"

Disturbingly, other Monessen parents claim that the Brentwood players hurled similar racist epithets themselves, calling the Greyhounds "monkeys and cotton pickers," as one Monessen fan told WPXI.
Meanwhile, Valley Independent staff writer Jeremy Sellew claimed that Brentwood Director of Security Joseph Kozarian, who was on duty at the game, refused to intervene, instead sitting back and at one point smiling and laughing with the Brentwood fans in the stands.


As more media attention has swirled around the disgusting incident, Brentwood officials have scrambled to try and alleviate pressure on the school and district as a whole. As of Tuesday the three students involved had been identified and disciplined, though their punishment was not disclosed to the media. Similarly, officials claimed they were "reviewing school policy to make sure a similar incident doesn't happen again."

Clearly, that's not strong enough. If the banana suit incident and subsequent racist abuse from Brentwood players occurred as numerous witnesses claim it did, the entire Brentwood season should be put under much deeper inspection before moving forward.

This is legitimate hate speech, after all, and the teenagers who were responsible need to realize just how damaging that is, both to their victims, themselves and society as a whole. At the very least, any players who made racist comments during the game itself should be punished significantly.

Despite being a cynic, I'm still amazed this disgusting incident went down in 2012. Then again, it sounds like some of the folks in Brentwood have a 1952 mentality.  I can just imagine them listening to their Patti Page records while waiting to catch that week's episode of "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet".

For the news story which aired on WTAE in Pittsburgh, click here.

In a side note, Monessen defeated Brentwood by a score of 59-45.

SNL Skewers the Tim Tebow Phenomenon

Taran Killiam as Tim Tebow and Jason Sudekis as Jesus Christ

On the 12/17 episode of Saturday Night Live, the final skit featured a locker room meeting between Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow and Jesus Christ. I hope even Tebow's most ardent supporters can find humor in this sketch.