Thinh Bui
February 25, 2012
Rough Draft
Linsanity: the recent craze that has developed around the world due to Jeremy Lin’s outbreak as a star basketball player for the New York Knicks.
Basketball stars are usually projected to become great or drafted early in the NBA drafts, but that wasn’t the case for Jeremy Lin. Lin’s story is different; he was the underdog. Although Lin led his high school team to win a state championship title, he didn’t receive any athletic scholarships and he was not selected during the 2010 NBA draft but was still determined to make it in the NBA. Jeremy Lin is in his second year as a NBA player and has been through numerous teams including Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, and now the New York Knicks. He was also placed in the NBA’s Development League. Linsanity began to develop when Lin received the opportunity to play against the New Jersey Nets on February 4, 2012. Lin took that opportunity and played his best NBA career game leading his team to win against the Nets. Lin became the new starting point guard after his stellar performance in the Nets game and went on to lead the Knicks, a mediocre team, to a seven game win streak. After that, Linsanity was on full blast and Jeremy Lin officially became a star.
Jeremy Lin has been the talk of the press and blogosphere since he has emerged as a star in the NBA. When following the circulation of recent articles on Jeremy Lin’s relationship with Yao Ming, there are noticeably different changes and purposes behind each article.
On February 11, 2012 ESPN.go.com released the article, “Lin on Yao Ming: ‘He’s a big brother to me’” by Jared Zwerling. It discussed the close bond the two players, Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming, had with one another. The article includes an original quote from Jeremy Lin stating,
“’I talk to Yao after every game’, said Lin, who took part in Yao’s foundation tour in Taiwan in August 2010.’He’s taken me out to eat every time we’re in the same city. He obviously is a role model and a big brother and mentor to me. We keep in touch all the time.’”(1)
The article also questioned whether Jeremy Lin would be the next great Asian player to take over Yao’s stardom by asking the question, “Can Lin take over that prestigious position”; prestigious position referring to Yao’s position as the “Asian ambassador of the NBA”(1). Not only was Jared Zwerling purpose in this writing to share Lin and Yao’s friendship but to arise the question of whether or not Lin can become the next Asian phenomenon.
The following day, on February 12, on the NYDailyNews .com, “Lin on Yao: ‘He’s obviously a role model and a big brother,’” was published on their website and written by Frank Isola. Frank Isola’s purpose behind this article is slightly different from the original writing. He still includes the quote about Lin and Ming’s friendship but decides to disregard the other statement about Lin being the new sensation. Instead, Isola focuses more on Jeremy Lin’s character and the way he has reflected his newly found fame upon his team mates and coaches. Isola claims “Lin hands out praises as often as he dishes out assists” (1). The article illustrates Lin’s character by incorporating quotes from Jeremy Lin.
“Jared Jeffries is an absolutely glue guy for this team. What he does defensively, every single rotation… his whole demeanor, his whole aura, everyone respects him so much. I can’t think of anyone more underrated than Jared” (1).
This new addition to the story promotes Jeremy Lin to not only be a good basketball player but also, a great person as well. To omit the statements that questioned how big Jeremy Lin was going to get in the previous article, gives the audience the chance to ignore what the future has for Jeremy Lin and rather focus on the present and how he is handling his newly found popularity.
The article “Yao Ming Wanted Jeremy Lin in Shanghai,” written by Scott Schroeder, was published by SBNation.com on February 14, 2012. The articles intent was to discuss Jeremy Lin’s career and all the different places he could have ended up instead of New York. There are more comments about Jeremy and his chances of joining the Shanghai Sharks, Los Angeles Lakers, and other NBA teams than comments about Lin and Yao’s friendship. The previous quote about Jeremy and Yao’s friendship does come up in this article but it is irrelevant with the writing due to the different purpose behind this article. Schroeder reports the different career paths that Jeremy Lin could have ended up on by pointing out, “There were numerous times that he almost ended up with the Los Angeles Lakers” (1) and “he could have stuck with the Dallas Mavericks out of the summer league.” Compared to the original article, this article didn’t lose much material but it did take the focus away from Yao Ming’s role on Jeremy Lin and replaced that focus with all of Lin’s career paths. By doing this, Schroeder completely changes the original topic and chose to begin a new one.
The article, “Yao among many Chinese fans rooting on Lin’s success story,” written by Fran Blinebury was published on NBA.com on February 16, 2012. This article talks mainly about Yao’s feelings towards Jeremy Lin and his unique style of basketball. Yao is quoted saying, “He (Jeremy Lin) has a high basketball IQ, but he also has more. He has and IQ about how to get along with people.” Yao has observed much more than just the hype behind Linsanity; he has also followed Jeremy Lin’s great attributes. Yao also reports that Jeremy “seems to be natural at making friendships and getting the team to play with him.” Along with praising Jeremy Lin, Yao Ming also took the time to clear up misconceptions that the public has received about Yao being Jeremy’s mentor. Yao states, “First, Jeremy doesn’t need my help. He is very talented himself. And I am a big man and could not teach him how to be a guard.” Yao’s statement acknowledges the accusations that he was Lin’s mentor while stating the truth. Since Blinebury presented the idea that Yao was Jeremy’s mentor then presented Yao’s quote as a counter argument, he used Joseph Harris’s technique of countering. This article has swayed off path with the original article and has lost the focus of Yao and Lin’s bond.
The new worldwide sensation of Jeremy Lin is not only inspirational because of its’ hardworking underdog story, but also because with him in the NBA, Asian and Asian-American communities now have another representative in the NBA. Like Yao Ming, since his breakout on the NBA scene, China and other Asian countries have gained more interest in the NBA. They are both promoting the sport of basketball in the Asian communities. Yao endorses that he “hopes the direction of the Lin story goes to furthering the development of basketball talent among Asians and Asian-Americans and getting more to reach the highest levels of the game.” As a Vietnamese-American basketball player, I see Linsanity bringing respect to the Asian ball players and creating interest in a sport that Asians didn’t appreciate. Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin are the icons that the Asian community needs to instill the sport of basketball into their life.
The press and blogosphere has shown that due to the easy access of information through the web, anyone can have the capability to write their own version of a news story and add or delete anything they wish. With the use of links, people are beginning to access their news independently. For the story of Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming’s relationship, the headlines started out as two friends and have changed throughout the circulation period. I was pleasantly surprised to see that no articles shifted from the original story and turned into a negative story. In today’s society, there has been incidences where writers and the media focus on the negative aspects of stories instead of the positive aspect to stir up controversy. As the contents in the original article moves to other sources, the purpose and intent of the content changes to whichever way best fits the new author’s style. The press and blogosphere is continuously changing and as information is passed to different sources, the purpose of each article will continue to change with it.
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