LINSANITY
Jeremy Lin played college ball for Harvard, a great University, but hardly a path to the NBA. He received no basketball scholarships out of high school; he was not drafted by an NBA team. Jeremy signed with San Francisco as a free agent and bounced around other NBA teams and the NBA developmental (D) league for several years before ending up in New York.
Lin was probably weeks away from being cut by the Knicks before circumstances gave him an opportunity to get significant playing time in a game against the Nets. His play sealed a win and a chance to start. The Knicks seven games below a five hundred record, won eight out of nine games with Lin as a starting guard. His scoring, assists and defense has “Wowed” the league, the fans, and the media.
The other night a Knick TV commentator asked a rhetorical question. “How many Jeremy Lin’s are there on the sidelines because they never got the breaks, the right coaching, the right program fit, or lacked the tenacity of Jeremy Lin?”
It struck me as a very good point. There is so much talent in sports, entertainment, writing, and virtually all fields of life that goes unnoticed due to bad luck, bad breaks, or lack of desire. The big one here is “lack of desire.”
Athletes and entertainers are often hit with the guilt trip, “You don’t want it bad enough.” There are numerous stories of people like Jeremy Lin. People that believed in their talent so much that they would not stop auditioning, would not stop ringing door bells, and would not except that they were not good enough to cut the mustard.
It is a wonderful story. It is a story that will inspire many to never quit, and never give up on their dream. What a beautiful rags to riches story.
Except…
Sometimes the experts are right. Sometimes the talent is just not there. Sometimes people need to take a different path.
There is a thin line between confidence in your ability and an obsession with a pipe dream. As great is the quality of confidence, is the potential destruction of an obsession.
When does a dream become a nightmare? What if the naysayers are correct? It is a determination almost everyone has to make sometime in their life.
Do you dare to dream?
Are you a Jeremy Lin or just a Joe Slub?
Good post. When is determination really pig-headed stubbornness? I read about Jeremy Lin in Time Magazine -- very interesting article. Of course the fact that he was on the Knicks sidelines means that he must have had some talent or he wouldn't have been there. The article also raised other 'cultural' issues that were interesting to consider in his case and that of other Asian players.
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