See, I have no problem with a lot of what Dennis Velasco said - except of course with the fact that he calls the signing of Jeremy Lin by Golden State "part-gimmick to appease the huge Asian population in the Bay Area".
And I know - it's not like I'm writing news for SI.com, Yahoo!, SLAM, Hoops Hype, or the NYT - but call me crazy - I kinda think there's something wrong with this picture:
Being Asian-American, I have to say Jeremy Lin. Do I think the Golden State signing is part-gimmick to appease the huge Asian population in the Bay Area? Yes, totally. However, Lin has some skills and can hoop… not just as an Asian, but as a person. I’m going to be pulling for him, despite the fact that he’ll probably spend most of his time on the pine. There will be a lot of pressure for Lin to represent Asian-Americans and that is no easy task to take on. Of course, he really owes Asian-Americans nothing, and I hope the pressure doesn’t get to him and he actually excels.Obviously, marketing can play into who you sign - even if Lebron never wins a championship in Miami you know another team will give him a shot if only because they know he'll fill seats. But do we have to call Jeremy Lin signing with Golden State a gimmick right off the bat? Didn't he have interest from other teams? Were they all thinking about signing him too in part simply because he was Asian American?
I'm going to go with no on that one myself. I'll take the belief - maybe wrong as it is - that people were interested in him simply because he is a baller.
Because everyone passed up on him maybe in part because he was Asian American.
But yet he's getting in in spite of it.
Does the fact that he might be marketable also help?
Yeah.
The NBA is still a business - and just like you want to win - you also want to sell right?
But calling his signing with Golden State "part-gimmick"? Like there would have been riots if they wouldn't have signed him?
Call me crazy - and you probably already do - but I think the extension is a little long on that reach.
But...
The fact that people will bring this up, or that it can be debated just goes to show that in the long run we'll need a lot more Jeremy Lin's - because one just isn't going to cut it.
