Although Jeremy Lin worked out with several NBA teams the past few weeks, he was not selected in yesterday’s NBA Draft. News just in out of Dallas says he’ll be “joining the Mavericks for mini-camp on Monday and Tuesday and, possibly, for their summer league team in Las Vegas.” His dream of becoming the first American-born Asian to make it in the NBA. Let’s see what happens next week and see if he’ll breaks down barriers like Ed Wang in the NFL.
Previous Mavericks workout with Jeremy Lin (see 1:53 mark)
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The Mavericks may have found the biggest sleeper in the draft.
I’m a big Jeremy Lin fan, and not just because he’s a future pastor/minister. At the 2010 Portsmouth Invitation (similar to the NFL’s pre-draft Senior Bowl) against future NBA draft picks, Jeremy Lin averaged 10 points, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 60% FG percentage. In 2008 in 7 games (some multiple) against Colorado, George Washington, UConn, and BC, he averaged 20 points, 5 rebs, 5 assists, and 3 steals, even though the other team was double or triple teaming him all game as the only good player for Harvard. In 2009 against UConn and BC twice he averaged 27 points, 5 rebs, 5 assists, and 3 steals, again while double or triple teamed.
His entire life Jeremy Lin has constantly faced obstacles and discrimination (not to mention racial slurs) in the basketball world, because of his race. He was California’s basketball State Player of the Year after taking an unknown HS team to take the championship over powerhouse Mater Dei, yet was offered no Division-I basketball scholarship from any school. Harvard was the only school to give him a spot, and with no scholarship. I don’t think it ever happened before that a Player of the Year in a huge state like California, didn’t get any college scholarship offers to play. Then, at Harvard, all he did was break all sorts of conference records, put Harvard on the map without any other legit player on the team, and this year finished as a finalist for both the John Wooden and Bob Cousy Award, for best D-I college player and best D-I guard in the country. If his last name were different, he might have gotten a chance to start at a different college and become a 1st round pick. He is taller than Avery Bradley, and just as athletic if you look at his dunks, blocks, and steals playing against players who were picked in the draft.
For those not familiar with him, here are some ESPN, Time Magazine, and Washington Post articles:
time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1951044,00.html
espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=4730385
washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/23/hoyas-preparing-for-crimsons-do-everything-lin/
To the poster ‘Rex’: Jeremy Lin plays an extremely unselfish game and makes his team’s better, but you can’t blame him for those losses. His Harvard team had literally no other decent players, and basketball is a team game. Everyone saw how far Cornell went this year in the March Madness tournament (Sweet 16), with 3 legit NBA prospects. Against Cornell, Jeremy’s Harvard team was no match, but Jeremy had 24 points on 7 for 12 shooting. He was hardly ‘shut down’ by Cornell, he simply had no help.