Friday, December 25, 2009

Doubting Jeremy Lin

I wrote about Jeremy Lin in mid-November and since then he has caught the attention of the national media after standout performances against the University of Connecticut and Boston College. One of the best articles was written by ESPN writer Dana O'Neil:

ESPN: Immigrant Dream Plays Out Through Son

Being Asian-American and a huge basketball fan, I am thrilled to see Jeremy Lin succeed and garner positive national attention for his skills and accomplishments. I am sure many people in the Asian-American basketball circles all over the United States are quietly cheering for Jeremy Lin. Despite the national attention, I know there are some people who still don't know about Jeremy Lin. I've taken it upon myself (as have many others) to tell their friends about this "Asian kid" who is doing well on the basketball court. Thanks to the power of the Internet, this is very easy to do these days.

Despite Jeremy Lin's success on the court, I have talked to people within the Asian-American community who doubt his skills or look down at his success. There are others who doubt Jeremy Lin can make the NBA. I am a little surprised at this. I would expect that Asian-Americans would back a guy from their own community rather than looking down at his success.

I had to step back and think about why Asian-Americans would doubt Jeremy Lin and I came up with two interconnected reasons:

  1. Some Asian-Americans have a self-defeating notion than they cannot compete with other ethnic groups in basketball.
  2. They have never seen a guy like Jeremy Lin before and cannot believe an Asian player can compete against other high level players.

In regards to item #1, I've heard and read about this from many sources over the years I've been involved in basketball. Many Asian-Americans simply believe they are at a physical disadvantage (height, speed and/or strength) when it comes to playing basketball against other ethnic groups.

When I was younger, I didn't question this notion. After all, it was fairly well known that Asian-Americans were generally smaller in stature than most other ethnic groups. As I've gotten older, I began to realize that Asian-Americans need to reanalyze this notion.

  1. Asian-Americans are generally smaller but as Yao Ming (and others) have proven, not ALL Asians are short.
  2. Just because someone has height does not make them a basketball player. Just because someone is short, it does not mean they cannot play basketball.
I believe Asian-Americans need to get over the notion that they cannot compete because they are short or not as strong. They need to embrace the notion that skill CAN triumph over height if the skill level is great enough. After all, the NBA does have players like Nate Robinson (5'9") and Earl Boykins (5'5") still playing. If these guys can make it, Jeremy Lin (standing 6'3") has a chance as well.

Item #2 is a direct connection to Item #1. Because many Asian-Americans believe that CANNOT compete in basketball, they are surprised that Jeremy Lin can play and play well against other ethnic groups.

Up until recently, video highlights of Jeremy Lin were sparse. In years past, it was easy to see Jeremy Lin's stats and just say "He's doing it against weak competition". However, as Jeremy Lin has garnered national attention, there is no more excuses. Jeremy Lin put up great games against VERY good competition and there are Youtube highlights to prove it:

Jeremy Lin: 30 Points against UCONN

My point in writing all of this? Regardless of whether you think of Jeremy Lin, I think all of us Asian-Americans should SUPPORT him. Any success that Jeremy Lin has on the college (and hopefully professional) level will indirectly help the Asian-American community.

Asian-American role models in the college and professional sports arena are sorely lacking. Jeremy Lin, who by all accounts, is a quiet and humble guy, would make a great role model for future generations of Asian-Americans who want to pursue opportunities in college and professional sports.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Volunteering

Volunteering my time has never been a problem. In the past, I have volunteered to coach basketball teams, officiate basketball games and other assorted activities. However, most of my activities centered around working with my immediate group of friends, immediate communities or activities that I am usually involved in. For many years, I am wanted to volunteer in a different capacity but never explored the opportunity myself.

A few weeks ago, an old friend of mine sent me a message asking if I wanted to volunteer at a homeless shelter. A mutual friend of ours had taken a position working at the homeless shelter and was looking for helpers to serve a Christmas dinner for the residents of the homeless shelter. It was a great opportunity that I couldn't turn down. It was a chance to catch up with old friends but also a chance to volunteer in both a different capacity (food server) in a different community (homeless folks in the Tenderloin) that I don't usually associate with.

That volunteer opportunity was tonight and it went great. I caught up with old friends and met a lot of the other volunteers who helped out. The work itself was a little easier than expected. We were only serving people who lived in the homeless shelter rather than just anyone who could walk in from the streets so that limited the number of people. Also, we had a great number of volunteers which helped minimize the workload even more.

While I didn't interact with the residents of the homeless shelter too much, one older lady was quite friendly. I talked to her briefly and got to know her background. She was a loner with no immediate family who had an artistic bent. It was different talking to her. Most of us are used to asking "How's work", "How's your family" or other things like that. For this particular lady (and probably a lot of the homeless people), some of these things don't apply. I had to take a different tactic to talk to her.

I had told myself that if certain people seemed like they wanted to talk, I should be open to it. My reasoning was that many of these people have gone through tough lives. While I can't change all the circumstances for any of these people, I figured a smile or a chat might make them feel better about themselves. I don't know if that was the case with the lady. She seemed fairly relaxed about her circumstances. However, if I was able to make her feel better in any way, then the time I spent today was worth it.

All in all, it was a great experience that I would gladly repeat again. Sometimes those of us who are "well off" forget that lots of others are in need, especially recently with the tough economic times. If you've never volunteered before, give it a shot. It may give you a different perspective on things you've never thought about before.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Cardio Boxing: Nintendo Wii Style

I've had my Nintendo Wii for a little over six months now. I've probably played the system for about three of those months. If you've read some of my previous posts, the main reason for playing the Wii was to get some additional exercise (and have some fun) for myself and my mom.

In the time I've had the system, I've primarily played Wii Sports (the game that comes with the system). I love Wii Sports and got the hang of the baseball, bowling, tennis and golf games. Yet, for some reason I stayed away from boxing. Perhaps it was due to some tough early experiences playing the game because I just didn't know how to play.

In the past month or so, I finally gave in and started playing the boxing game. It took a little while (and some reading) to get the hang of the game. Now that I have gotten the hang of the game, I LOVE it. Unlike the other four sports, boxing requires some effort and forces you to expend a lot of energy while playing. I find that using the three boxing training games and the main boxing game itself gives me a decent workout.

Recently, I got a copy of EA Sports Active for the Wii. I've loving EA Sports Active due to the great number of activities in the game. Among my favorites? If you guessed boxing you would be correct!

While I won't be participating in real boxing anytime soon, I actually thought about getting a punching bag or something similar. It would be nice to do some real boxing work rather than just using the Wii.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

I'll be back.........

I'm still here. I just haven't posted in recent weeks. Lots of things to talk about but I just haven't focused on it due to other stuff going on. Thanks for reading and look for new posts soon enough!