madmaxmedia wrote:I think this article might illustrate what a lot of people see in Lin (even though it's talking about Yao Ming):
http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/show-me-the-yuan/Sheng laughs as he recalled a young Yao traveling to Houston for the first time, not fully equipped for NBA’s star-focused ethos. The Rockets were a team, but they were a team being built around their towering center, and it took time for Yao—raised on conservative Chinese traditions—to realize that in sport sometimes it’s OK to be No. 1, to put yourself first, to dominate. It’s a lesson Sheng is hoping a generation of Chinese athletes will be quick to learn as they look to cash in on professional sports’ rising prominence in the world’s largest economy.
“We need bad boys,” Sheng says. “In sports sometimes you need bad boys. What previously was lacking a bit with Chinese athletes was the killer instinct. Yao was certainly lacking it a little bit. Our culture rewards the people who obey. But in sports, it’s actually about the ones who can risk it all, who—pardon my language—say ‘Just f*** it. I am going to go for it.’”
I think that last line sums up Swaggy P pretty well, does it not? He might succeed, he might fail, but you know when the situation arises he is gonna go for it, guns blazing.
Lin is Asian-American (as am I) and not native Chinese, but its a generally Asian cultural thing to fit in, don't make too much noise, be diligent, have respect, etc. In some ways its good, but the problem in basketball is that if you try too much to avoid mistakes and being respectful ("fitting in"), you end up failing out of lack of trying. Instead of having say a 50-50 chance of making a significant positive impact on a game, he ends up with only a 10% chance because he's trying too hard to play smart, defer, not make mistakes, etc. It's good to play mistake free basketball, it's probably bad to try too hard to not ever make any mistakes. Often you end up second-guessing and hesitating, and making mistakes because of that. Compounding this is the fact that he plays PG, which is even more so supposed to be the 'unselfish' position, except that his skill set is clearly that of a 1.5. His best skill is breaking down the defense which can lead to assists, which is different than being a prototypical floor general type.
Neither Swaggy P or Jeremy Lin will ever be all-star players either way, and if you look at their stat lines for the year they're not even that different (if you allow for their different positions.) But on a Laker squad that is not very good anyway, and desperately needs reasonably talented guys (like Young or Lin) to step up on any given night, Swaggy P's attitude will help the team more.
It's also why there's always talk of whether Lin's current team/situation is a good fit, how to maximize his talents, etc. If a guy has talent, he can find a way to contribute and fit in, but not if you worry too much about how to fit in. Because then you shrink your game in response to your perceptions about everyone else. Basketball is a team sport, but it also absolutely requires guys to play with assertiveness and step up. It's not a coincidence that we read it was Swaggy P pulling Jeremy aside and trying to help him with this, help him deal with Kobe.
I'm pretty much speculating about all of this of course, but this is what I see at least externally on the court.
Everyone says that Linsanity will never happen again, and it's true of course. But, Lin can approach the game and PLAY like that and at least have spurts of that KIND of success. That he is capable of. As soon as Nick Young came back from injury, he was a positive influence on the rest of team in more ways than just the numbers. That was actually true of Lin at one point (not on the Lakers though.)
There, I think I've probably said all about Jeremy Lin that I'll ever have to say again.
