By James Carr
Floyd Mayweather is making news, and once again it’s a negative headline for something outside of the ring.
No stranger to controversy, Mayweather returns to his coveted spotlight by calling out America’s hottest sensation, Jeremy Lin.
“Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise.”
Palm, meet face.
It was hard not to cringe at another misguided Mayweather tweet but Mayweather has essentially said the same things about Manny Pacquiao. Many times Mayweather has gone on one of his famous rants about how he too ascended up the weight classes to attain belts in multiple divisions yet doesn’t seem to get the praise and adulation that Pacquiao receives. He took this argument so far as to suggest Pacquiao must surely be using drugs to duplicate Mayweather’s feat, an argument that has him facing a defamation lawsuit.
Not to mention Mayweather’s racist, homophobic rant on UStream, where he spent the majority of the time calling Pacquiao all sorts of unmentionable names.
So, yes, we’ve seen this all before from Mayweather and again Mayweather misses the point.
“Linsanity” is not just a big deal because Lin is Asian-American. No doubt, his ethnicity adds something to the story, but his background and current situation make the legend. How many players from Harvard have had this kind of impact on the NBA? How many players have slept on their brother’s couch before dropping a third, or fourth, 23-plus point game? How many players were cut twice and sent to the D-League three times before starring in New York City?
Lin is the perfect player in the perfect situation and he came out of nowhere. He also happens to be Asian.
What black players is Floyd referring to in his tweet? Any player currently averaging what Lin averaged over his first four games – which, by the way, is virtually no one – gets Hall of Fame/legend/MJ comparisons.
Even players who have a couple big games get hype. Remember Norris Cole’s two dominant performances for the Heat? Had he continued onto a four-game run, the hype machine could have been very similar given his Cleveland State degree and second-round draft pick status. We’ll never know because he couldn’t maintain Lin’s high standards.
Brandon Jennings was all the rage following his 55-point game during his rookie year. That next-best-thing-since-sliced-bread sensation was a first-round pick and still got love. But he averaged 15-points per game during that season, not 23. Sorry, not making the cut.
Hell, even Sundiata Gaines drew “SportsCenter’s’’ top plays for his game-winner two seasons ago with the Jazz. He came up from the D-League to replace Deron Williams and was a big hit for a few days after his last-second dagger. But you didn’t hear about him again because he didn’t score more points than Michael Jordan or Allen Iverson or Shaquille O’Neal in his first four starts.
There isn’t any doubt that Lin’s ethnicity has given the story more legs. It’s interesting, unique and, perhaps more importantly, gives the media a chance to flex their sociological brains. But the story is not built around his ethnicity; it’s built around his unprecedented journey and unprecedented success.
The same goes for Pacquiao, actually. Kid grew up fighting for his life, eating one bowl of rice per day, if he could find that. Now he’s an 8-division world champion congressman.
Sometimes it’s nice to see parallels between sports and cultural icons.
Sadly, that’s not true for Mayweather’s played-out, selfish, racist routine.
