One of the projects in my English 325 class was called an "Investigation." The assignment called for us to research any event or phenomenon that was of interest and write about its significance. Given the ambiguity and lack of restriction that came with the prompt, I decided to write about something different -- something cool. And who could be cooler than Jeremy Lin?

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Jeremy Lin is Chinese. Jeremy Lin is an NBA basketball player. And that's the gist of Linsanity -- the story of Lin's sudden and unprecedented rise to stardom in the NBA. As an Asian basketball player, racial biases have colored Lin's entire career. So when he broke onto the NBA scene in 2012, he overcame all of the obstacles and all of the circumstances that made him an underdog. I was inspired. And as a 5' 7" half-Asian basketball player myself, I felt that Lin somehow represented me. As much as I enjoyed sitting back and watching Lin's story unfold, I also wanted to explore the bigger racial significance of Linsanity.

 

Writing about the score, the stats, and the standings is a huge part of sports journalism. Each game is its own story. But the human interest stories have their place off the court. When it comes to sports writing, this is what captivates me. This investigation gave me the platform to write about how Jeremy Lin impacted the world, not just about how Jeremy Lin impacted the Knicks.

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While I was researching and writing the article, I had to resist the tug of bias that came with my fanhood. I had to fold up my Jeremy Lin poster and transition into journalist mode. It was difficult at times, but I forced myself to stay objective and truly investigate the implications of his story. In the end, I was able to attribute a meaning to his story that goes far beyond basketball. Sports is often a reflection of society, and Linsanity revealed how prepared (or unprepared) we were for such a figure in the sports world.

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