If you are an Asian American parent, the thought of your kid attending an Ivy League school such as Harvard might have crossed your mind sometime. How about your kid playing in a professional sports league, such as NBA? Probably not. Now imagine your kid attending Harvard and going NBA? You must be joking, you'd say.
Well, here's an Asian American kid who's well on this path now, no joking. Jeremy Lin, the son of two Taiwanese immigrant parents who was born and raised in Palo Alto, California, is attending Harvard and leading its basketball team playing NCAA games with record shattering performances, and is projected to be a favored draft choice of NBA if he elects to go professional after graduation. The following is put together from various newspaper and magazine reports regarding this unique young man that's making news lately:
Jeremy Lin, a 6 ft. 3 in., 200 lb senior majoring in Economics in Harvard Univeristy and co-captain of its basketball team, is leading this year's Harvard team to its best start in 25 years. Last season Lin was the only player in the nation to rank among the top 10 players in his conference in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and 3-point percentage. This year, in games against New England's two traditional NCAA basketball powerhouses, UConn and Boston College, Lin scored 55 points and shot 64 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line. If Lin helps Harvard's team to win the Ivy League this year, it will play in the NCAA Tournament in March for the first time in 64 years.
Lin caught the hoops bug from his father Gie-Ming. Before he emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s from Taiwan, Gie-Ming would scour Taiwanese television for highlights of NBA games. Once in the States, he studied Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the classic Los Angeles Lakers–Boston Celtics games from the 1980s. "I cannot explain the reasons why I love basketball," says Gie-Ming, a computer engineer who received his doctorate degree at Purdue University before settling down on the West Coast. "I just do."
By the time Jeremy was 5, Gie-Ming was taking him to the local YMCA in Palo Alto, Calif., to play ball in a kids' league. For Jeremy, it wasn't exactly love at first sight. "He stood at half-court sucking his thumb for the entirety of about half his games that season," says Jeremy's older brother Josh, 24. "It came to the point where my mom stopped going to watch his games." Then Jeremy asked his mother Shirley to start coming to the Y again. Before Shirley would commit, however, she wanted to know if he'd actually try. "He responded with something along the lines of 'I'm going to play, and I'm going to score,' " Josh says. She showed up, and Jeremy scored the maximum number of points one player could amass under the kiddy-league rules. "From that game on, he just took off and never looked back," says Josh.
Throughout Jeremy's childhood, Gie-Ming would take him to the YMCA after he finished his homework. They would practice and play in pickup games. "Many Asian families focus so much on academics," says Gie-Ming. "But it felt so good to play with my kids. I enjoyed it so much." Gie-Ming said he never had to worry about Jeremy's ability to balance basketball and academics because his son always showed maturity in devoting enough time to both. The young Lin had an overall 4.2 GPA, a perfect score on his SAT II Math 2C in the ninth grade, and led Palo Alto High basketball team to a 32-1 record and the California state championship in his senior year in high school and ended up garnering virtually every player of the year award in northern California.
Some people still can't look past his ethnicity. Everywhere he plays, Lin is the target of cruel taunts. "It's everything you can imagine," he says. "Racial slurs, racial jokes, all having to do with being Asian." Lin is reluctant to mention the specific nature of such insults, but according to Harvard teammate Oliver McNally, another Ivy League player called him a C word that rhymes with ink during a game last season. On Dec. 23, during Harvard's 86-70 loss to Georgetown in Washington, McNally says, one spectator yelled "Sweet-and-sour pork!" from the stands.
In the face of such foolishness, Lin doesn't seem to lose it on the court. "Honestly, now, I don't react to it," he says. "I expect it, I'm used to it, it is what it is." Postgame, Lin will release some frustration. "He gets pissed about it afterwards," says McNally. "I have to tip my hat to him. I don't know how I'd react. The type of dude I am, I might not be as mature as Jeremy."
Lin's maturity could lead him to the ministry. A devout Christian, Lin is considering becoming a pastor in a church near his Palo Alto home. "I've never really preached before," Lin says. "But I'm really passionate about Christianity and helping others. There's a beauty in seeing people change their lifestyles for the better."
If Lin leads Harvard to the tournament, he'll be off to a pretty holy start. Consider it his first miracle.
By the time Jeremy was 5, Gie-Ming was taking him to the local YMCA in Palo Alto, Calif., to play ball in a kids' league. For Jeremy, it wasn't exactly love at first sight. "He stood at half-court sucking his thumb for the entirety of about half his games that season," says Jeremy's older brother Josh, 24. "It came to the point where my mom stopped going to watch his games." Then Jeremy asked his mother Shirley to start coming to the Y again. Before Shirley would commit, however, she wanted to know if he'd actually try. "He responded with something along the lines of 'I'm going to play, and I'm going to score,' " Josh says. She showed up, and Jeremy scored the maximum number of points one player could amass under the kiddy-league rules. "From that game on, he just took off and never looked back," says Josh.
Throughout Jeremy's childhood, Gie-Ming would take him to the YMCA after he finished his homework. They would practice and play in pickup games. "Many Asian families focus so much on academics," says Gie-Ming. "But it felt so good to play with my kids. I enjoyed it so much." Gie-Ming said he never had to worry about Jeremy's ability to balance basketball and academics because his son always showed maturity in devoting enough time to both. The young Lin had an overall 4.2 GPA, a perfect score on his SAT II Math 2C in the ninth grade, and led Palo Alto High basketball team to a 32-1 record and the California state championship in his senior year in high school and ended up garnering virtually every player of the year award in northern California.
Some people still can't look past his ethnicity. Everywhere he plays, Lin is the target of cruel taunts. "It's everything you can imagine," he says. "Racial slurs, racial jokes, all having to do with being Asian." Lin is reluctant to mention the specific nature of such insults, but according to Harvard teammate Oliver McNally, another Ivy League player called him a C word that rhymes with ink during a game last season. On Dec. 23, during Harvard's 86-70 loss to Georgetown in Washington, McNally says, one spectator yelled "Sweet-and-sour pork!" from the stands.
In the face of such foolishness, Lin doesn't seem to lose it on the court. "Honestly, now, I don't react to it," he says. "I expect it, I'm used to it, it is what it is." Postgame, Lin will release some frustration. "He gets pissed about it afterwards," says McNally. "I have to tip my hat to him. I don't know how I'd react. The type of dude I am, I might not be as mature as Jeremy."
Lin's maturity could lead him to the ministry. A devout Christian, Lin is considering becoming a pastor in a church near his Palo Alto home. "I've never really preached before," Lin says. "But I'm really passionate about Christianity and helping others. There's a beauty in seeing people change their lifestyles for the better."
If Lin leads Harvard to the tournament, he'll be off to a pretty holy start. Consider it his first miracle.
| Jeremy Lin in an NCAA basketball game against Boston College on Dec. 9, 2009.jpg |
| Jeremy Lin (2nd from right) and family.jpg |
* Here's a YouTube clip "Top Ten Must-See Sports Moments" by ESPN that includes one Jeremy Lin's basketball highlight: A last-second, game winning 3-point shot in an NCAA contest last November (ranked one notch higher than Kobe Bryan's during that week): http://www.youtube.com/watch?
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