Linsanity

Ok, I've decided to take a break from my political rants and choose a hot topic for discussion today. Looks like Linsanity has taken the NBA and the NYC area by storm, and it's no surprise considering how the Knicks have won 5 in a row, 4 since starting him, and all 5 since he played 30+ minutes. This is truly one of the greatest underdog stories in the NBA, not only because of his rise from obscurity into an overnight sensation, but his humble character and faith in Christ. No doubt about it, this kid (I can call him "kid" because I a year older than him) came to the NBA ready to play.

Now a lot of people I know have been accused of jumping on the Lin bandwagon in the past week, but I have been interested in Lin since his rookie year in Golden State. I've always taken an interest in Asian players in the NBA in general. Obviously being Asian myself, I've always hoped for them to succeed. But there's also a dark side of me, a bit of schadenfreude on my part as I watched guys who underestimated the level of competition in the NBA and overestimated their own abilities, come and go in the league (the likes of Sun Yue, Ha Seung-jin, and the overrated, complete bust of a 6th draft pick, Yi Jianlian) . I remember watching pioneers like Mengke Bateer (who even won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003) and Wang Zhizhi during my freshman year in high school. But they rarely got any playing time, and it was really once in a blue moon when they actually had a decent game by NBA standards. Then Yao Ming came to the league and changed everything. He became the first Asian #1 draft pick, all-star and All-NBA team member. However, although he made a huge impact on the international level, and increased international interest in basketball, people weren't really able to relate to him, and that was the cause of his freakish 7'6" stature. That became evident when his teammate Tracy Macgrady's jersey began outselling Yao's in China. True, most young Chinese people became interested in basketball because of Yao, but most young Chinese people aren't 7'6" tall. Furthermore, Yao's game is not really what you would call "fun" to watch. Sure, he has a nice soft shooting touch and is an excellent freethrow shooter, but he lacks any of the razzle-dazzle that fans want to see, and pay for. Yao gets an A for sportsmanship but a C- for showmanship. But this is not his fault, his 7'6", 310 lb frame was not made for that type of play, and even the way he was playing had taken a toll, eventually causing him to retire because of a chronic foot problem.

What the Asian basketball fans were hoping for was a guard, someone that could demonstrate agility, quickness, and ball-handling skills and inspire and excite the crowd. The hope was left unfulfilled after the attempts of Yuta Tabuse, Liu Wei, and Sun Yue. And then, last week, seemingly miraculous, that prayer was answered in the form of Jeremy Lin. However, as sudden as his success may seem, I don't think sudden divine intervention was the cause of it. Yes, God gave him the talent, but He gave Lin that talent the day he was born, not last week. And I was not too surprised when he went off on a scoring tear last week (of course until he dropped 38 points on the Lakers) because I've seen a glimpse of what he can do:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVEiYap1F4

This was during the 2010 Summer League during which the Dallas Mavericks invited Jeremy Lin to play for them. What you see in that video is John Wall, the #1 draft pick, the most conveted new player that year, getting outplayed by Jeremy "Who?", an undrafted player who was unable to get a basketball scholarship from Harvard. Although he didn't get the attention the top picks of the draft got that year, Lin showed that he definitely can play, and can compete at that level. Kobe puts it best after the Lakers lost to the Knicks last Friday: "Players don't come out of nowhere." Lin is a legitimate NBA-caliber player, he was before D'Antoni gave him the starting point guard job, he was before playing 35 minutes against the Nets, he was while sitting on the bench in Houston, and he was while sitting on the bench in Golden State. You can't hide talent forever. It will reveal itself when the opportunity comes. Lin did not get lucky 5 games in a row, and he is definitely not a fluke (although if you have watched a recently episode of "The Office", you've probably heard this quote from Kevin that had me ROFL: "A fluke is one of the most common fish in the sea, so if you go fishing for a fluke, chances are you just might catch one"). Lin didn't let what people thought of and expected of him get to him, and knows exactly for whom he is playing for. We don't know how long this Knicks win streak will last, and how Lin will perform with the return of Amare Stoudemire against the Raptors tonight and Carmelo Anthony in the near future, but since the good Lord is running the show, and as long as He wills it, Linsanity is here to stay.

Join or Die

Does the image above look familiar? Anyone who has read an American history book in high school should have seen this before. This was a political cartoon created by Benjamin Franklin. However, it is usually mistakenly connected to the American Revolution, when in fact, the cartoon was drawn earlier, during the French and Indian War, calling the colonists of unite against the French. During the early years of the American Revolution, this cartoon was actually recycled without Ben Franklin's consent, to urge the colonists to once again unite, and this time against the British. Instead of 13 pieces to represent the 13 colonies, the snake is cut into 8 pieces, used to represent the 8 regions of the British East India Company. Whatever the application, the message is the same: forget our differences and join together as one country, as one body, or focus on what separates us, try to exist on our own, and eventually come to an inevitable death.

Nowadays, the snake is split in half, but instead of being easier to unite, it has become many times more difficult. Because over time, these differences have coalesced into ideologies, which are conveniently packaged and force-fed to the American public. Nowadays, the choice is simple, and you are either for us, or against us. Everything is so black and white. If you believe in so and so, then you must be against such and such. Anything in between is disregarded, as if we are given choice to fit the mold, or not be taken seriously at all.

In his famous work The Prince, Machiavelli illustrates the dangerous potential of a monarchy, republic, and democracy to fall into a dictatorship, oligarchy, and anarchy respectively. He had the insight at that time to envision a government incorporating all three types of government bodies, a system of coexistence that will dispel the dangers of each type of government existing on its own. And that is what we have in the U.S. today, and for a long time, in the form of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. However, instead of keeping check on each other while working together toward a common goal, what we have is a constant debate, and a constant struggle to gain the majority vote for one's package of ideologies. Inaction and indecision have become keywords to describe congress, and it will eventually cause us as a country to become left in the dust. Candidates nowadays spend more time delivering harangues attacking each other's credibility and ideals, instead of offering solutions to our national problems. Once in office, the losing party attempts to prove the new incumbent's ineffectiveness by countering every one of his or her proposals, delaying action, instilling public impatience. This may help politicians win politically, but most of us Americans are losing, and if the system does not change soon, we will have less and less to lose.

In his song "Ghetto Gospel", Tupac Shakur says: "it ain't about black or white, cause we're human, I hope we see the light before its ruined." Well, it ain't about red or blue 'cause we're Americans, I hope we see the unity before the country is ruined.