The issue of racial discrimination in basketball will be highlighted when 60 Minutes profiles Jeremy Lin on tonight’s broadcast on CBS.
Lin explained to Charlie Rose why no division 1 college basketball program recruited him.
“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,” Lin tells Rose in tonight’s feature.
As the Bleacher Report points out, such basketball recruiting websites like ranking.com didn’t even bother to rate Jeremy’s basketball prowess. In other words, Lin couldn’t even get on the radar screen.
Former NBA player Rex Walter who is Japanese American and now coaches at the University of San Francisco told this to ESPN.
“It’s the Asian thing. People who don’t think stereotypes exist are crazy,” said Walter. “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.”
There’s another high school player coming up who may meet the same fate as Lin. His name is Chris Tang and you can read about him in the Bleacher Report,
The piece on Jeremy Lin can be seen tonight on 60 Minutes.
