Floyd Mayweather Jr. has once again found himself in the center of controversy. Maywheather, who is no stranger to controversy, was criticized for stating his opinion on the media coverage of the New York Knicks rising star Jeremy Lin.
Lin, who is a sure rising star in the NBA, has a very attractive story. Going undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft he eventually signed a short contract with the Golden State Warriors. Getting little to none playing time, the Warriors demoted Lin down to their affiliated D-league team, the Reno Bighorns. In the beginning of the 2011 NBA season the Golden State Warriors waived Jeremy Lin. The Houston Rockets then claimed him off waivers but after 2-preseason games he was waived again. Fast-forward to now February 2012, after slipping though the cracks, flying under the radar, and days away from being cut by the Knicks the Linsanity has arrived. Lin, an Asia American man has managed to become a part of NBA history by recording at least 20 points, seven assists, and one steal in each of his first five starts.
The media has been all over this story and has aided the elevation of Jeremy Lin’s superstardom. He can be found on every sports channel, radio broadcast, etc. In just 7 starts in the NBA he has be mentioned in the same breathe of the greats of this league. But is what he’s doing really that spectacular? Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t seem to think so. The 5-division world champ had this to say about the Linsanity, “Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise.” After receiving an insurmountable amount of criticism he followed up with this statement, “Other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine. As soon as I support Black American athletes, I get criticized.”
Is Floyd Mayweather correct? Is all of the hype surrounding Jeremy Lin race based? In my opinion to a degree Floyd makes a valid case. To respond to Floyds tweets, are their black NBA players who do what Lin has done night in and night out in the NBA? Off course there are. Do they get the same media attention and coverage that Jeremy Lin has gotten? Probably not because it’s common to the NBA consumers. Lin being the first American player in the league to be of Chinese or Taiwanese descent is definitely intriguing to the media and sports community because it’s not common. It’s not something that you see every night when you watch an NBA game. So is the media attention that Jeremy Lin receiving race based? Yes but not totally. I’m Just Saying
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