Here comes Linsanity

I enjoy NBA basketball. But to be honest I do not really get into it until we get close to playoff time. But about a week ago my facebook account went crazy with talk of some guy name Jeremy Lin. It seemed that all of my Asian friends were posting and chatting about him. So naturally I had to check him out when the Knicks played the Lakers.

Okay in the interest of full disclosure here – I hate Kobe. So I was pulling for the Knicks all the way. But I do not think I had to hate Kobe to appreciate the 38 points Lin put up. The boy has got some game. He also seems to play with a joy that was fun to watch. I cannot pull for him when the Knicks play the Spurs (That is my team), but otherwise I think I am a Lin fan.
In many ways he is going to be as interesting of a story to the American sports world as Tim Tebow. There are so many fascinating dimensions to the Lin story that it is hard to know where to go with this. The Asian-American angle is what first produced interest in the story as Asian-Americans have a role model and hero in the NBA. A Harvard grad in professional sports is another interesting twist. His heartfelt Christian faith is certain to get played up in the coming weeks and months.
But what I find interesting is the fact that all of the teams basically passed on him. Even the Knicks used him as a last resort. No one saw the now obvious talent this young baller has. Why did the NBA teams pass on him? Well when we think of NBA basketball player we do not think of a Harvard-educated Asian-American do we? Lin simply did not fit into our expectations and a lot of teams really missed out on a treasure due to their stereotyping of Lin.
Let me clarify something. This is not a claim of racism. That may have happened, but I am not claiming that. Rather we tend to develop basic stereotypes and operate out of them without even thinking about it. It is in the interest of NBA coaches and general managers to accurately assess basketball talent. Yet Lin slipped through their fingers. I believe it is because Lin is not what they expected in a potential NBA star. The cost of their failure of imagination is that this bright young talent got away. We tend to hold onto stereotypes even when it costs us. That is how powerful our urge to stereotype is.
It is understandable why we stereotype. It is a shortcut. We do not have time to really get to know everyone in our lives. Sometimes we need to put people in a box and if we never have to get to know them well then that is fine. Stereotyping becomes a problem when we refuse to take them out of that box when there is evidence to the contrary. So many coaches and general managers had a box for well-educated Asians who want to play basketball and put Lin in that box. Even when he demonstrated talent they did not take him out of that box. And the Knicks lucked into discovering how inadequate that box was.
When we automatically restrict people because of stereotyping we hurt ourselves. We can rob ourselves of potentially “Lin” level of talent. We do not hire a women clergy because of her gender and can lose out in what she has to offer. We reject an evangelical academic candidate for a position (read my book Compromising Scholarship for evidence of this) and do not get a potentially great teacher/researcher. We refuse to befriend someone who dyed his/her hair pink and miss out on a friend who will be there for us. Stereotyping is not just bad for those stereotyped but it is horrible for those doing the stereotyping. They may never know what they are missing due to their stereotyping. The bottom line is that we must be careful not to keep people in boxes when doing so is not warranted. Or we may have to watch Lin hit a three pointer to beat our team in the last moments of the game.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker