Jeremy Lin (merged threads)

[The Walker Wiggle]

So, this happened.

Complaints can be directed here.

Heard about that this morning.

Someone is Bristol is losing their job.

Worse, that it happened twice, once on air, followed by the headline above. I don't know if I want someone to lose their job, but I certainly want more than the tepid, anonymous apology that ESPN has issued thus far.

I know I'm one of the few Simmons fans here, but I thought he put it well.

Even the late-night monologue-type jokes like "Of course Jeremy Lin would go well with MSG" or "Who said Asians couldn't drive?," sound relatively harmless until you think, Wait, nobody would be making 'black' jokes if Lin were black.

[Q_FBE]

Didn't we have our own feel good story sometime back over Brandon Hunter? We were all trolling around the messageboards for two weeks about how Brandon Huntah as gonnah be an All STAH BAHBY!!!! He got scouted and went away rather quickly. I hope the same think doesn't happen to Jeremy Lin especially in New York. YIPES! 9 turnovers is not a good thing.

I mean feel good stories like Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin are great for the world of sports but I hope the fans get a grip if and when the game of basketball catches up to Jeremy Lin's exploits.

[soap07]

Heard the one on the air. I truly believe that that was innocuous. The one on ESPN's front page though...yikes.

[LooseCannon]

I'm just waiting for some sports media personality to make an ill-advised 'Melo-Yellow reference to Anthony and Lin.

[Roy H.]

Heard the one on the air. I truly believe that that was innocuous. The one on ESPN's front page though...yikes.

You know, I saw the headline last night, and I didn't even think twice about it.  It didn't register with me.  Let's hope that that's what happened with the ESPN editor, as well.  However, based upon their propensity to use cliches, I'm guessing this wasn't innocuous. 

[Fan from VT]

Didn't we have our own feel good story sometime back over Brandon Hunter? We were all trolling around the messageboards for two weeks about how Brandon Huntah as gonnah be an All STAH BAHBY!!!! He got scouted and went away rather quickly. I hope the same think doesn't happen to Jeremy Lin especially in New York. YIPES! 9 turnovers is not a good thing.

I mean feel good stories like Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin are great for the world of sports but I hope the fans get a grip if and when the game of basketball catches up to Jeremy Lin's exploits.

I'm still fairly amazed by this guy. He's got some flaws, for sure. But this was the supposed "crashing back to earth" game, but really it was just the Knicks lost. 9 turnovers is very bad, but this is essentially his rookie season, and one of the biggest changes in a PG from year 1 to year 2 is decreasing turnovers. Much more likely to improve than shooting, finishing, passing, etc. In this "bad" game, he still had 26 points on 18 fg attempts and had some assists and steals. Not that bad a game, really.

[Kiorrik]

Heard the one on the air. I truly believe that that was innocuous. The one on ESPN's front page though...yikes.

You know, I saw the headline last night, and I didn't even think twice about it.  It didn't register with me.  Let's hope that that's what happened with the ESPN editor, as well.  However, based upon their propensity to use cliches, I'm guessing this wasn't innocuous. 

Same here, Roy. Might have something to do with not hearing the word "chink" too often back in Holland (read: only in the movies ) but it took me 3 read-throughs before I realized what the big deal was.

[KGs Knee]

I wasn't even aware of the ESPN headline slip until about 5 minutes ago.  Kelly Dwyer has a psuedo-critical article about it up right now.

Here's the thing.  This is a legitmate saying, is it not?  I mean, the saying in and of itself is in no way racist, right?

Obviously, if taken the wrong way, it comes across as a racist pun.  But was that ESPN's intentions?  I highly doubt it.  More likely than not, whoever was responsible for the headline just didn't recognize the pun, and the resulting uproar that was emminent.

Can't totally fault ESPN for this without knowing what the motivation was.

[steve]

It's like saying Vince McMahon is racist for naming the Honky Tonk Man

[LooseCannon]

Obviously, if taken the wrong way, it comes across as a racist pun.  But was that ESPN's intentions?  I highly doubt it.  More likely than not, whoever was responsible for the headline just didn't recognize the pun, and the resulting uproar that was emminent.

Can't totally fault ESPN for this without knowing what the motivation was.

I think ESPN can clearly be criticized for being tone-deaf.  It may not be intentionally malicious, but it's the sort of lack of awareness that allows people to get away with racism if they can have a story of plausible deniability.

Whether or not Roland Martin's tweets during the Super Bowl that got him suspended by CNN constituted gay bashing might be a similar question.

[PosImpos]

Heard the one on the air. I truly believe that that was innocuous. The one on ESPN's front page though...yikes.

You know, I saw the headline last night, and I didn't even think twice about it.  It didn't register with me.  Let's hope that that's what happened with the ESPN editor, as well.  However, based upon their propensity to use cliches, I'm guessing this wasn't innocuous.  

Yeah, it immediately registered with me because I'm so used to ESPN using those cliches.

I have a hard time believing somebody would come up with that phrase as a headline for the story if they weren't thinking of Lin's race.

[Eja117]

Thousands of players and games and headlines. Was bound to happen at some point. But if it was Fox Sports instead of ESPN people would be up in arms.   And to think....somewhere on Earth someone will starve to death tonight. 

[Kiorrik]

You know what I would love? If ESPN released a statement saying: "Oh get over it. It wasn't meant like that, and we'll leave it because we STILL don't mean it in that way."

People need to learn that it's not about how you interpret something: it's about how the other person *meant* it.

[LooseCannon]

You know what I would love? If ESPN released a statement saying: "Oh get over it. It wasn't meant like that, and we'll leave it because we STILL don't mean it in that way."

People need to learn that it's not about how you interpret something: it's about how the other person *meant* it.

That's a ridiculous ethical egoist notion that we don't have any duties towards others.  People don't live in a bubble, so a reasonable expectation of how other people might interpret something is just as important as what you mean.

I would respect ESPN more if they released a statement saying "Yeah, we meant it that way and we stand by it" than if they did what you want.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

This might be stupid but please help me out... I just don't get the racist part of Chink In The Armor? (I seriously don't).