LBS- A Lin fan put together this video and uploaded it to YouTube last week. It shows many hard fouls Lin has received this season and how similar they are to plays that were called flagrant fouls in other circumstances. The video has received over 800,000 views since it was uploaded.
The Charlotte Observer took note of the video and asked Lin about it. Lin said he had watched it after many friends shared it with him, but he downplayed the video. “It is what it is. I just want to keep playing hard,” Lin said via The Observer. “It’s one of those things where I made a rule of myself halfway through the season that I’m not going to argue with refs. Whatever happens, happens. It helps me stay focused on basketball.” Okay, I don't want to complete disregard the contents of this video. The overly particular Hornets fan that put so much work into this compilation (to hide the fact that he probably needs a real hobby) deserves at least a sentence or two. I will say that I had no idea that Jeremy Lin was repeatedly getting whacked around the hardwood without fair admonishment from the officials. Some of those non-flagrants came at the hands of players like Kobe Bryant, James Harden, and LaMarcus Aldridge who are always going to get the benefit of the doubt. Still, I can admit that it's pretty clear there is a case to be made for Jeremy Lin as a repeat victim of negligent officiating. What I would really like to address is the reason why this is happening, and I think that reason is fairly obvious. No one in the NBA feels bad for Jeremy Lin. There isn't a player in NBA history that has received more undue praise than Jeremy Lin. He rode a two week stretch of great basketball on a terrible team that was without it's leading scorer to superstardom. The guy had his own slogan for Christ's sake. 'Linsanity' was an actual craze that swept the nation. You couldn't walk through a sporting good store without seeing an entire rack devoted to Jeremy Lin. Shit, the way he was being treated in New York you would think he was like one triple-double away from getting his own parade down 'The Canyon Of Heroes'. You know why Jason Terry pushed him to the ground three times in one game? Jealousy. Jason Terry has long been a productive player in the NBA. He was a key contributor to a heavy underdog that inevitably beat the Miami Heat super team in the NBA Finals. You know who is more recognizable to the average fan than Jason Terry? Jeremy fucking Lin. No one in all of sports has gained more notoriety per minute of relevancy. It's absolutely unheard of. Players spend their entire careers trying to receive the amount of acclaim that Jeremy Lin managed to have lauded on him in approximately ten days. Yes, it's unjust that he can't even get a Flagrant 1 in his favor when he leaves his blood, sweat, and brain cells on the court. It's unprecedented for multiple officials to miss such blatant fouls on a regular basis. That being said, literally nothing about the career of the Asian role player that was once the center of the sports world has been precedented. I can't speak for the referees, but I have to imagine that this is just the universe balancing itself out.
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