American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets, Jeremy Lin, speaks about how being Asian has affected his career.
Basketball star 28-year-old Jeremy Lin, who is also known as "Linsanity," has spoken up about how being Asian and the stereotypes attached to his culture have affected his career.
Kevin Kreider asked Lin on a Q&A portion after a game if the basketball star player has ever experienced stereotyping Asian guys as not being attractive. However, Lin spoke about how other variations of Asian stereotypes affected him as a professional basketball player.
"I think Asian American masculinity is one of the issues that I feel like should be talked about way more," said Lin.
"To go on your point of being athletic, ... Me and John [Wall] were the fastest people in the draft, but he was athletic and I was 'deceptively' athletic.' I think I've been deceptively 'whatever' my whole life," explained the Nets player.
In 2010, the Houston Rockets were supposed to draft Lin. However, general manager Daryl Morey decided not to push through with Lin because they perceived the aspiring player as "unathletic."
In an interview with Michael Lewis, the author of the book "The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds," Morey revealed what went wrong in drafting Lin as part of the Houston Rockets.
Nets Daily reports, "He's incredibly athletic. But the reality is, every f****** person, including me, thought he was unathletic. And I can't think of any reason for it other than he was Asian," Morey explained.
Not only does Lin experience the consequences of Asian stereotypes on his career, he also goes through them in simple events such as entering a basketball game.
Lin shared with ESPN that he is often barred by security officials unless he is wearing his official basketball jersey. The Nets player said that "it literally happens everywhere."
However, Lin accepted it as part of being an Asian NBA player.
