Jeremy Lin says race cost him a D-1 college scholarship

[alp227]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/04/06/houston-rockets-jeremy-lin-race-harvard-interview/2059099/

Linsanity was one of the most unlikely and awe-inspiring success stories in NBA history, not only because of the rarity of Asian Americans in the NBA, but also because his success seemingly came out of nowhere. Everyone knows the story of the four-year player at Harvard, not exactly a hotbed of college basketball success, who went undrafted and rode the bench for a year with the Golden State Warriors before being turned to by the New York Knicks as an absolute last resort, and completely turned their season around while becoming a worldwide sensation in the process. But Lin, now with the Houston Rockets, tells 60 Minutes' Charlie Rose in an upcoming interview that he believes his ethnicity is largely responsible for that pre-Linsanity obscurity.

"I think the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian American," Lin told Rose when asked why he was never offered a Division I basketball scholarship. "I think that was a barrier."

Lin excelled as a high-school basketball player in northern California, but was ultimately passed over for scholarship offers from nearby schools like UCLA and Stanford.

NBA commissioner David Stern thinks Lin's race may have also been a factor in why he had to fight his way onto an NBA roster through Summer League. I don't know whether he was discriminated against because he was at Harvard or because he was Asian," Stern told CBS.

It's impossible to know just how much of Lin's difficult path to NBA stardom was caused by his ethnicity, but it would be naive to assume it had nothing to do with it. On the other hand, though, had Lin played at a more high-profile school and been drafted in the mid-to-late first round in 2010, he would not have been able to sign the three-year, $25 million deal he received from the Rockets after his second season as a pro. It goes without saying at this point that he has the talent to be a starting point guard on an NBA team, and that would have come to the surface one way or another. His path was a little more unorthodox.

Video preview:

Harvard and other Ivy League colleges do not offer athletic scholarships. It's a common belief that elite colleges perceive Asian-Americans as a "model minority" and hold such applicants to higher standards or have a racial quota to prevent an "Asian invasion". A common strategy among Asian applicants is to decline to state ethnicity in application.

[brush]

1. I think you mean Cal and Stanford

Both are Bay Area, northern California schools. UCLA is in southern California, but they could've also offered.

[alp227]

2. Lin's dream schools were Stanford and UCLA

Lin sent his résumé and a DVD of highlights of his high-school basketball career to all the Ivy League schools, University of California, Berkeley, and his dream schools Stanford and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[7][19][20] The Pac-10 schools wanted him to walk-on, rather than be actively recruited or offered a sports scholarship. Harvard and Brown were the only teams that guaranteed him a spot on their basketball teams, but Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships.

(Wikipedia)

The reporter's geography is wrong, but Stanford and UCLA are most relevant in discussing Lin's road to the NBA given that those were his most desired schools. But a lot of NorCal Asian-Americans do go to UCLA, so in a sense it's "nearby".

[Peregrine]

3. He went to Harvard

I really feel bad for him. Did he graduate?

[alp227]

4. Yes, he has an econ degree and 3.1 GPA at Harvard. (From his Wiki article) n/t