The point guard was a star of his high school team in California. He was an excellent all-around player who led Palo Alto High School to a state championship and was named first-team All-State.
However, he did not receive any interest from the high-major schools, the mid-major schools or even the small schools. In fact, Harvard was the only program that even wanted him on the team.
Well, I think the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian American, which, you know, is a whole different issue but ... I think that was a barrier. I mean ... it's a stereotype.
We have a player who was dominating a tough league and sending film of himself to teams across the country (via Mark Viera of the New York Times), but coaches were not giving him a chance.
However, you can blame more than just the college coaches. Respected recruiting websites like Rivals.com did not even have a rating for the point guard.
You cannot expect a Pac-12 school like Stanford or Cal to offer a scholarship to a player given zero stars, but someone should have given an extra look.
Unfortunately, the fact that he is Asian American hurt his chances. Considering he does not have great height like Yao Ming, teams had to judge his pure basketball ability, and they were not going to do that.
It's the Asian thing. People who don't think stereotypes exist are crazy. If he's white, he's either a good shooter or heady. If he's Asian, he's good at math. We're not taking him.
He's one of those kids who makes the right play time after time after time. But it takes time to see that. It takes patience to see that. That's not how recruiting works. If the [recruiting] services don't have him in the top 100, the majors won't recruit him.
It took a couple of years of bouncing around in the league before eventually finding a home with the Houston Rockets. He is now playing extremely well, averaging 13.1 points and 6.1 assists for a team on its way to the postseason.
Fortunately, there is some good that can come from this. Coaches and scouts that refused to give Asian Americans an extended look based on prejudice will be forced to put some extra effort in scouting.
One possible example is high school junior Chris Tang, who plays at Oak Hill Academy. The school itself is one of the most storied high school programs in the country, and this year features two of the top 50 recruits on 247 Sports' composite rankings (plus the vastly underrated Nate Britt).
Tang himself is unrated, but he has a very impress highlight reel, and Grantland's Jay Caspian King focused on his potential (and pressure) in a feature article.
While the style of play is not much like Lin's, his path to stardom could end up being similar. It will take hard work but, hopefully, less racism than the current NBA player faced.
It is impossible to argue that prejudice is a thing of the past in this country. People of every race in almost every occupation deal with it on a regular basis.
Hopefully, Jeremy Lin's impressive play at the sport's highest level will at least reduce the amount of discrimination for the future.
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