WWTT (Why Was Tebow Tebow?)
February 22, 2012 10 Comments
So Jeremy Lin is being spoken of in some circles as ‘the next Tebow’.
Can anyone explain why Tim Tebow was the previous Tebow?
From context what people appear to mean by calling Lin a ‘Tebow’ is, ‘another phenom who comes out of nowhere and makes a splash’. Now, I don’t follow either NFL or college football (let alone the NBA) that closely, but wiki tells me that Tim Tebow, quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy and won two college football championships, before coming to the NFL and becoming ‘Tebow’. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the Heisman Trophy is supposed to be a big thing, and Florida is a big football powerhouse, and winning championships is pretty good too. All of this probably explains why the name ‘Tim Tebow’ wasn’t at all new to me – I had totally heard of him before he reached the Broncos. This should tell you something, because – for comparison – here is a full and complete list of college football players I can name from the most recent season:
1. Andrew Luck
(No, I can’t remember the name of the guy who beat out Luck for the Heisman.)
So, to summarize, in Tim Tebow we have a college football star who played for a big-time program, won some championships, won the Heisman, was drafted in (as far as I can tell) the first round, then became an NFL starter and won some games, getting his team into the playoffs.
How exactly is any of this like Jeremy Lin? An analogous basketball-version of a description of Jeremy Lin basically involves negating everything in the previous paragraph.
All we are ever told in articles about the ‘Tebow phenomenon’ is that Tebow, like, ‘wasn’t expected to do well in the NFL’, or somesuch. I don’t know who these non-expecters are supposed to be exactly, but it’s hard to see why I’m supposed to compare (a) a 1st-round Heisman winner’s NFL performance (=pretty good) to (b) the inexplicably-low ‘expectations’ of [some unnamed people], and conclude that Tim Tebow is some sort of Inexplicable Surprise Phenom, a football version of a Jeremy Lin.
People have told me that Tebow’s skills are subpar, unorthodox, don’t work for the NFL, etc., and so that’s why he’s such a Surprise Phenom. Well ok to all that, but if he sucks so much why did he win the Heisman and all that. I mean, at most what I can imagine that adding up to is that he’s one of those QBs whose skills worked in college (or perhaps, in his particular program/system) but not so much the NFL, like a Ty Detmer or a Vinny Testaverde or a Rodney Peete or someone. So, we’re seeing a storyline wherein a guy who was expected to be like a Rodney Peete at best seems to have turned out to be a little better than Rodney Peete, at least for one season? And that’s such a ‘huge surprise’ that we’re supposed to treat him as if he ‘came out of nowhere’? Would people have been reacting this way if Rodney Peete had had a pretty good season as a starter with some comeback wins and a playoff berth? I doubt it. So what is it?
Is it all just because Tebow does that, like, praying thing he does or whatever? (I don’t know how to describe it as I’ve never seen it. As I said, I don’t follow NFL that closely.) And that’s why he ‘wasn’t expected to do well’ to such a degree? Because of the praying? ‘Yeah, he won the Heisman, but he does this praying thing, you’ve gotta see it, I can’t imagine him going anywhere in the NFL’? Is there anything else, because if there is, I have never understood what (from reading articles about him).
Anyway, obviously since I never understood why Tebow was some kind of football pre-Lin, I now struggle to understand why Lin is the ‘next Tebow’. Or rather, Lin may be a Tebow, but objectively, it doesn’t seem to me that Tebow is a Tebow. Am I wrong?
Answer in comments.
P.S. I think I’m going to end all posts with ‘Answer in comments’ from now on…
According to Sailer, Lin is a Tebow only in that they don’t live up to their respective racial expectations: They both play, and succeed at playing only by playing, “black”. Which, it is impolite to spell out, is not what one would expect of an Asian and European guy respectively. White guys are supposed to succeed at football by being exceedingly smart and disciplined. Asian guys are supposed to succeed in basketball… well, by doing the basketball players’ homework I guess.
That makes sense; and since it’s unspeakable to blurt out that what makes these guys seem comparable/connected is that observers would have expected guys-like-that to be black, that explains why the explanations people *do* give have made no sense to me. Thanks. P.S. This may also explain why I inferred, simply from how people talk about Tebow, that Rodney Peete was a comparable…
Another common point is that reportedly both are pretty open about being evangelical Christians.
Jeremy Lin does not play black. He plays like Steve Nash. So, does that mean he plays Canadian?
It sounds like Sailer knows nothing about basketball.
Jeremy Lin gets all the attention he gets because he really is that great.
His first five games out of the box set an all-time record (held by Shaquille O’Neal) for most points scored.
I will repeat that: AN ALL TIME RECORD!
Not only did he score a lot of points, he also led his team, as Point Guard, in a way we have seen from only the greatest point guards in history; Magic Johnson and Steve Nash being the names that spring to mind. (I will leave Larry Bird and John Stockton out, because quite frankly, I think Lin is on his way to proving himself to be WAY BEYOND those guys).
The conversation about Lin, in this comments section (and on a national level), thus far, has been lame. This has little to do with race. White people and black people are not fans of Lin because he’s Asian. That’s stupid. I’m sure ASIAN PEOPLE ARE, in part, FANS OF LIN BECAUSE HE’S ASIAN. Sure, that would seem obvious. He’s the first real Asian star. (It would have been appropriate to have wondered aloud if Yao Ming, for instance, was getting all his hype merely because he was Asian).
To sum it up; this discussion seems to be proceeding according to the dictates of people who know little about basketball.
It’s absolutely correct I’m coming at this as someone who doesn’t follow basketball much. That’s why I’m confused by the reaction to Lin, and why I’m asking this question.
To clarify, I’m NOT confused that people have Linsanity. The Linsanity seems justified to me. From his performance so far, he really does seem great, and an instant star, and that is remarkable to me (again I don’t pay that much attention to the NBA but I don’t think there’s been anything quite like it in memory), and I think that’s all awesome. At this point I’m as big a fan of Jeremy Lin as it’s possible for me to be a fan of any NBA player. And it’s not ‘because he’s Asian’. We have no argument about any of that. That is not what I was saying.
The specific thing I DON’T get is simply the comparison to Tim Tebow. That was the entire point of my post. Because you see, there is no obvious connection between ‘Tim Tebow’ and ‘Jeremy Lin’ in my mind.
Yet to others, there certainly appears to be (or am I wrong?).
The Sailer explanation makes sense to me. Note it doesn’t hinge crucially on Lin playing in a ‘black style’ per se (I’ll defer to your expertise that he does not), simply that he is excelling in a sport/role where people had a prior expectation that someone of his race wouldn’t. There may be a double-back effect where the ‘Lin=Tebow’ people have (1) observing a mania about these two guys, (2) observed that they’re both not-black, and (3) made some sort of connection like ‘if these were black guys there wouldn’t be such a mania’. If that’s all it is that would be a dumb point but at least I’d understand why people are making the equation. If that’s not what it is, though, then I don’t know what it is.
Do you?
Well, when a point guard sets an ALL TIME RECORD for scoring points over a non-trivial interval, then that sounds like “give me the ball and get out of my way” and that sounds black. I don’t follow basketball enough to know whether that is actually black, or Steve Nashian, or both.
Sonic Charmer,
I’m not criticizing your comments. I’m just disappointed in Sailer’s pov (he usually seems to try to understand what he’s discussing before he discusses a subject) and that of Steve Nicolosso (who might be Steve N. above as well).
So, you said: he is excelling in a sport/role where people had a prior expectation that someone of his race wouldn’t.
I say: I do think this plays into why he is getting a lot of attention. It’s like if we had an Indian (from India) or a Cholo-style Mexican-American from East LA all of the sudden excelling in the NBA. This may seem race-based, but I don’t think it is. I think it is novelty-based.
Again, for Asians, I do think the love of Lin IS RACE-BASED. But, can you blame them? Here is a somewhat average-looking Asian man all of the sudden excelling at a sport that no Asian has ever excelled at before. (And, again, I think Yao Ming was overhyped, a mediocre Center).
As to what Steve N. says above, he is wrong. Once again, it is clear he doesn’t get into basketball. That is not a brutal criticism. Who really cares if someone is into basketball or not. I happen to be a pretty big fan of the NBA, and I have been following Lin very closely since he torched my favorite team; the Lakers.
Lin did not do anything “black” by scoring a lot of points over a period of games. Lin is a Point Guard, which means he is like the basketball equivalent of a Quarterback. What’s more, in the Knicks system, which is Coached by Mike D’Antoni, the PG controls the ball even more than on an average team. The other day, ABC announcers made the point that Lin controls the ball 80% of his time on the court. This is not a matter of him demanding the ball. This is a matter of his job being to control the ball, assess the offense and the defense, and decide whether to distribute or shoot. That’s his job. There are a lot of guy in the NBA who do that job. Jeremy Lin has proven to be VERY good at it.
And, now that I think about it, I have forgotten to explain the most important part of why Lin is truly remarkable.
Here’s how it goes:
Lin never had the chance to really play before.
The only reason he got the chance with the Knicks is because
1) their two biggest stars (very highly-paid stars I might add) who had been brought to the team in the past year to make the team a success had not done the Knicks any good. The Knicks were one of the worst teams in the League and Mike D’Antoni’s job was on the line
2) the two big stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire were both injured.
3) it was time for the Knicks to either cut Lin or guarantee his contract for the rest of the year
4) D’Antoni convinced management to allow him to play Liin to see what would happen
5) Lin exploded as soon as he was given the chance to run things
So, the reason Lin is said to have “come out of nowhere” is because he did.
He played at an obscure High school in California and won the California championship. He went to Harvard, which is ignored in basketball, because he was smart, and of course, he was ignored because Harvard is ignored. He was not drafted into the NBA, but instead was signed by the Golden state Warriors as a walk-on, and then he was cut by the Warriors and the Rockets.
His first real chance to play was in the dire circumstances in which the Knicks found themselves.
He came through like a Champion, and he has been doing so for three weeks in a row now.
It is the most remarkable and sudden introduction a player has had to the national limelight since Fernando Valenzuela in the 1980′s.
That’s who he really ought to be compared to.
Ok, I don’t disagree with any of that (and never did), but seriously, what in the heck does any of it have to do with Tim Tebow? Why on earth would people mention ‘Jeremy Lin’ and ‘Tim Tebow’ in the same breath, why would the one guy make anyone immediately think of the other? Am I not being clear that the ONLY thing I question/do not understand is the ‘Lin is like Tebow’ meme?
You’re ABSOLUTELY RIGHT that Fernando is a FAR better comparison. So, a meme like ‘Linsanity = Fernandomania’ would have made perfect sense to me. But instead of speaking of Lin as the ‘next Fernando’ people keep talking nonsensically about Tim Tebow. As if, ‘surprising splash/came out of nowhere’ is somehow a description of Tim Tebow. And THAT is what I do not get. Again: if that’s a ‘Tebow’, why was TEBOW ‘Tebow’?
P.S. For the record, Sailer’s explanation wasn’t exactly that Lin ‘plays black’ per se, it was this:
That seems a little more neutral and defensible. No?
Anyway, Sailer links to a Sports Illustrated piece in which the comparison is made, so I guess I’ll just read that and see if it makes sense….
Just read it. Now I’m basically irritated someone even got me to think about this whole thing. The writer refers to “the Tebow-Lin phenomenon”, and as far as I can tell the entire basis for making that connection and calling it a “phenomenon” is that they’re both not black. So basically, it’s their fault for making that connection, not Sailerites. Stupid.
Dang, I must’ve read “humble, team-first role player” and thought “white” or “Asian”. How silly!