Yup, just another badass dunk by Harvard’s star point guard, Jeremy Lin. He was pivotal to Harvard’s recent close game against the 13th-ranked team in the country, the UConn Huskies. Huskies won the game at 79-73. Clearly, this guy has been playing ball all his life. But who knew that he learned the game from his dad, who grew up in Taiwan and had taught himself how to play by watching the NBA on TV! “I would just imitate them over and over; I got my hook shot from Kareem,” his dad, Gie-Ming Lin, tells ESPN.
Still, being one of just a handful of Asian-American basketball players isn’t easy. According to ESPN, “Asian-Americans make up just 0.4 percent of Division I basketball rosters, according to the latest NCAA numbers. That equates to 20 players out of 5,051.” And as Jeremy knows well, stereotypes die hard when you’re clearly the minority. During the game against UConn, Jeremy stepped to the free throw line, when one shameless student chanted, “Won-ton soup.”
Update: We made changes to the post. Thanks to our viligent readers who pointed out the mix-up!
