TORONTO – Sports fans are going crazy for 23-year-old New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin.
The NBA’s first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent, Lin even had Torontonians cheering for him as he landed the winning basket to beat the Raptors Tuesday night. The young star has now scored 130 points in his first five starts, and will be featured on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.
Now trending on Twitter, Lin has inspired a vast list of puns and catchphrases: Lin-sanity, Lin-tastic, a Lin-derella Story, Lin-Possible, Lin-tense, Lin-vulnerable. If it rhymes with Lin – or even if it doesn’t – someone on social media has added it to the basketball star’s name.
Underdogs traditionally attract a certain following, but Lin brings even more to the table with his unique history. An Asian-American Harvard graduate who was undrafted in 2010, then cut by two teams in December, he’s no one’s idea of a typical NBA player. Evoking even more sympathy, the New York Times reports he’d been sleeping on his brother’s couch as he waited to see if his salary would be guaranteed for the full season.
Lin’s story has taken over sports landscape for many reasons, says TheScore on Global’s manager of content and lead anchor Derek Snider.
“It’s unfortunate, but the majority of major sports news stories revolve around racism in sport (especially in European football), athletes that have had run-ins with the law, and the extra-marital exploits or drug use of multi-millionaire athletes,” says Snider, who has been reporting on professional sports for 15 years.
So in an era of greedy, overpaid professional athletes who are sometimes in the media for criminal activity, is Jeremy Lin what the sports realm needs right now?
Kathleen Hessert, founder and CEO of American sports and entertainment reputation management companies Sports Media Challenge and Buzz Manager, says yes.
“I think all of sports can revel in Jeremy Lin right now,” says Hessert. “Not only is it a big market team that’s finding their biggest star in a nobody, but sports in general is seeing an intelligent person who went to Harvard.”
Hessert has been in the business since 1984, and her clients range from Peyton and Eli Manning to the Rockettes. Perhaps most notably, Hessert is credited with launching NBA great Shaquille O’Neal’s Twitter account, “back when Twitter was geeks,” she says with a laugh.
Hessert explains the Lin-language and idioms generated on social media are catching on because he personifies what people want to see as the “best of competition.”
“I think people love competition, and Lin has excelled when he got the opportunity to compete,” she says. “But everything that surrounds that excellence that he’s showcased is more ‘every day.’ Sleeping on a couch, you know… He’s getting to the top sleeping on a couch. It’s so exciting.”
Snider says Lin is a welcome distraction for both fans and media, but characterizes much of the social media reaction as band-wagon jumping. He calls Lin a player who is skilled, but “not a future Hall of Famer.”
“While he is the biggest story in sports, fans want to be on board, and more importantly feel like they are a part of the phenomenon,” says Snider. “What does make Lin unique is the battle against sport-specific stereotypes/cultural bias that many think he has conquered in only a handful of games.”
While sports headlines are often snagged by controversy or nefarious deeds, Jeremy Lin proves that there’s still a public appetite for a fairy tale of sorts.
“So many people feel so overwhelmed with life right now,” adds Hessert. “To have an inkling of hope, even that someone else has at their fingertips like this, provides an inspiration that even people who are successful can revel in, and especially those people who are struggling.”
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