Floyd Mayweather Jr. & Jeremy Lin: Hating vs. Stating the Obvious.

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Remember Linsanity? That was sooooooo one month ago. 

One month ago the name Jeremy Lin was on everybody’s lips as the New York Knicks clobbered teams night after night on the basketball court to lead them to an 18 – 18 record. But that was then. The reality now is the former Knickerbockers have lost four games straight. Most recently to the Milwaukee Bucks Friday night, and now the name Jeremy Lin is no longer cried in praise. In fact he’s just mentioned with everyone else as an after thought while the entire team of talented players is slammed for not being on their “A” game. 

So was Linsanity really worth its one month of hype? Is Jeremy Lin the third coming of Jordan? Or did Floyd “Money” Mayweather have a point when he tweeted: 

“Jeremy 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 the tweet Floyd Mayweather Jr. was called a racist to which he defended himself by saying he was just supporting Black athletes. While we’ll leave the merit of that statement up to Floyd Mayweather Jr. himself, the question still remains: “Is/was Jeremy Lin worth all of the hype of last month, and if so  deserving will he have what it takes to turn his team’s four game losing streak in to a wins to put the Knicks in the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoff line up. 

I ask this question because when it comes down to it star Black players usually get the job done. The manufactured dream team down in Miami (Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James) have played well this year despite the embarrassing loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA championship last year. Even when Lebron was with the Cav’s his talent was never minimized in the face of crushing losses. The same goes for Derrick Rose and the Bulls. But the same can’t be said for Jeremy Lin. Saying Jeremy Lin played well overall and saying the country is caught up in Linsanity is the same disrespectful differentiation of saying Muhammad Ali is the greatest boxer ever to saying that he’s just a former boxer who has Parkinson’s. The person is the same the praise is not which leads to questions of talent. 

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a point. If Jeremy Lin is as good a player as his stats say he is and ESPN has made him out to be then game loss or game won Linsanity should persist instead of people hopping on and off the bandwagon of the latest “Asian Persuasion.” The fact Linsanity has devolved into into just a modicum of what it used to strengthen’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s statement for barbershop arguments and the occasional bar fight; racist undertones not withstanding. 

As for Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s race baiting comments on Manny Pacquiao, me and the rest of the world are waiting on a Madison Square Garden fight to settle the score once and for all. 

Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper

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