Thinh Bui
March 5, 2012
Writing and Rhetoric
Lin and Ming
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 in the media as becoming great or being 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 was not selected during the 2010 NBA draft but was still determined to make it in the NBA. Currently, Jeremy Lin is in his second year as an NBA player and has been through numerous teams, including the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, and now the New York Knicks. He was also placed in the NBA’s Development League four times. The term “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 emerged as a star in the NBA. There are many stories revolving around Jeremy Lin, from his race and religion, to his performance on the court. I chose to follow one specific story, Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming’s relationship, instead of focusing on “Linsanity” as a whole. 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. This essay will uncover those differences and reveal the purpose behind each article.
On February 11, 2012, the ESPN website released the article, “Lin on Yao Ming: ‘He’s a big brother to me’” by Jared Zwerling. Zwerling discussed the close bond between the two players, Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming. The article includes an original quote from the Lakers post-game interview (Feb. 10) with 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’. The article also questioned whether Jeremy Lin would be the next great Asian player to take over Yao’s stardom by asking, “Can Lin take over that prestigious position?”; prestigious position referring to Ming’s position as the “Asian ambassador of the NBA”. Not only was the author’s purpose in this writing to share Lin and Ming’s friendship but also to arise at the question of whether or not Lin can become the next Asian phenomenon. This changes Lin’s harmless, friendly quote about his friend, Yao Ming, to a debate about whether or not Lin could take over Ming’s spotlight.
The following day, February 12, 2012, the NYDailyNews .com published, “Lin on Yao: ‘He’s obviously a role model and a big brother,’” 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 reflects his newly found fame upon his teammates and coaches. Isola claims, “Lin hands out praises as often as he dishes out assists”. The article illustrates Lin’s character by incorporating quotes from him. Lin spoke of his fellow teammate saying, “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”. This new addition to the story promotes Jeremy Lin as not only a good basketball player but also a great person. By omitting the statements that questioned how great Jeremy Lin was going to become from the previous article, this article gives the audience the chance to ignore what the future has for Jeremy Lin and 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 article’s 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 Ming’s friendship. The previous quote about Lin and Ming’s friendship does come up in this article, but it is not as important 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” and “he could have stuck with the Dallas Mavericks out of the summer league”. This article does retain much of the content from the original article; however, it does not focus as much on Yao Ming’s role on Jeremy Lin. Instead, it replaces that focus with more attention on Lin’s career paths. By doing this, Schroeder completely changes the original topic and begins a new one. The article, “Yao among many Chinese fans rooting on Lin’s success story,” written by Fran Blinebury was published on the NBA website on February 16, 2012. This article mainly discusses about Ming’s feelings towards Lin and his unique style of basketball. Ming is quoted saying, “He (Jeremy Lin) has a high basketball IQ, but he also has more. He has an IQ about how to get along with people.” Ming has observed much more than just the hype behind Linsanity; he has also followed Lin’s great attributes. Ming also reports that Lin “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 him being Lin’s mentor. Ming 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.” Ming’s statement acknowledges the accusations that he was Lin’s mentor while stating the truth. This article illustrates Joseph Harris’ technique of countering; the author first presents the idea that Ming is Lin’s mentor then presents Ming’s quote as a counter argument. This article has swayed off path from the original article and has lost the focus on Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming’s bond. The new worldwide sensation on Jeremy Lin is not only inspirational because of the hardworking underdog story, but also because with him in the NBA, Asian communities now have another representative in the NBA. Similar to Yao Ming’s breakout on the NBA scene, Jeremy Lin’s success has resulted with China and other Asian countries gaining more interest in the NBA. They are both promoting the sport of basketball in the Asian communities. Ming 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 all the Asian basketball players and creating more interest in a sport that Asians previously did not appreciate too much. Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin are the icons that the Asian communities need to instill the sport of basketball into their life. With the help of today’s media, his stories are able to spread across the globe and read by billions of people. The press and blogosphere have 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. For the story of Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming’s relationship, the headlines started out as two friends and then changed along the circulation period. 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. I was pleasantly surprised to see that no articles shifted from the original positive story into a negative story. In today’s society, there have been instances where writers and the media focus on the negative aspects of stories instead of the positive aspect to stir up controversy. This could be a potential development of this story in the near future.
Works Cited
Blinebury, Fran. "Yao among Many Chinese Fans Rooting on Lin's Success Story." NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, 2012. Web. 24 Feb 2012. <http://www.nba.com/2012/news/features/fran_blinebury/02/16/yao-ming-discusses-jeremy-lin/index.html>.
Isola, Frank. "Lin on Yao: 'He's Obviously a Role Model and a Big Brother." NYDailyNews. NY Daily News.com, 12 Feb 2012. Web. 24 Feb 2012. <http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-02-12/news/31050998_1_jeremy-lin-role-model-big-brother>.
Schroeder, Scott. "Yao Ming Wanted Jeremy Lin In Shanghai." SB Nation. STATS LLC, 13 Feb 2012. Web. 24 Feb 2012. <http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2012/2/13/2794888/jeremy-lin-yao-ming-shanghai-sharks>.
Zwerling, Jared. "Lin on Yao Ming: 'He's a big brother to me'." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 11 Feb 2012. Web. 24 Feb 2012. <http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/11404/lin-on-yao-ming-hes-a-big-brother-to-me>.
