By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
A six minute viral You Tube video of hard fouls on Jeremy Lin that was produced by a San Jose mother of three has drawn a response from the NBA.
The video lead many to ask whether Lin was being victimized by racial discrimination from the refs.
It was picked up by such major publications and bloggers as the New York Times, Huffington Post , Angry Asian Man and AsAmNews and apparently had become the topic of so much conversation the league felt it couldn’t ignore it.
The league turned to statistics to prove its point saying “we have found no data that suggests Jeremy Lin is disadvantaged by our officiating staff.”
The league says it used multiple video angles and enhancement to review every possible questionable call after the game.
“While some of the plays in the video involved hard contact, none was subsequently deemed a Flagrant Foul given the full circumstances, angles and comparables from past games,” the league said in its official statement.
NBA officials acknowledged that Lin has never drawn a flagrant foul, but it says other players who drive to the basket more than Lin have also never drawn such fouls. It says Lin ranks seventh among NBA players who have drawn common fouls among all players who have driven to the basket more than 1500 times.
“Given the infrequency of flagrant fouls (roughly 1 per every 500 foul calls), it is not statistically significant that none of Mr. Lin’s 814 fouls drawn were deemed flagrant,” the NBA concluded.
The video that attracted all this attention was produced by Hsiu-Chen Kuei who waited for her husband and children to go to bed before editing her project.
“I’m just happy that people are noticing this,” Kuei told the Times. “It’s not about views. I didn’t get money or anything. I didn’t want attention. I just want Lin to get fair calls.”
The statistics cited by the NBA, while relevant, may not tell the whole story. I’d want to know among the players who have driven to the basket more than 1500 times, how many of them sustained as many hard fouls as Lin. If its roughly the same, then maybe you have a valid comparison. If the other players lag behind Lin in hard fouls, then the question remains unanswered. The NBA also didn’t address the portion of video of past flagrant fouls called by the refs and how the level of contact in those fouls didn’t compare to the non-calls on Lin.
What do you think? How satisfied are you with the NBA’s explanation?
RE: NBA fails to address key questions in Jeremy Lin flagrant foul controversy: As Asians our history is full of violent acts against our ancestors. Please look at the clear differences that Jackie Robinson had to face. Our Brother Jeremy Lin has absorbed a lot of hard impacts and blows. The historical video footage does not lie. Jeremy Lin is taking the hits for our people’s advancement into the NBA. Some kind of Administrative action to equalize the fair referring of the games, must come forward out of this abuse.