ESPN Jeremy Lin Headline… Racist Or Not?

By: Tommy ‘Tj’ Sotomayor III Feb 18th 2012 4:22 AM EST!

Tommy Sotomayor Says:  OK I have to be honest, this sh*t was funny as hell, yeah I know that either it was a mistake, a joke or just plain out racist but when I saw this it was a little bit funny.  I mean Mike Greenberg of Mike and Mike did say Martin Luther Coon live on air during their Martin Luther King Day show.  This Headline says “Chink In The Armor”

Of course it is big news that the New York Knicks have lost their first game since inserting Jeremy Lin or Tim Tebow Light so why wouldn’t they search for a head line to get the attention of their readers?  I mean, they have worn out the Lin puns so what was left, yep the old cliches but this one seemed to be a bit off color. (It is still funny as hell I don’t care what no one says..lol)

So with all of the lin-sanity going on do you think they were just making an innocent remark or do you think that this was racist as hell and on purpose?  Yeah I am sure that by the time you guys wake up it will be gone but me I was up and couldn’t sleep and here I found what just might be one of the most racist slash innocent headlines ever.  What do you think, should the Asian community be offended or should people stop being such sticks in the mud?

Hornets slow down Jeremy Lin, snap Knicks’ winning streak

VIDEO PLAYLIST 

• No Win For Lin
• FanSpeak: Gauging the Level of Linsanity
• Lin Some, Lose Some
• Time For Lin, Knicks To Regroup

Also See

• Melo sidelined, so pairing with Lin must wait
• Knicks sign ex-Nugget Smith, release Balkman
• Interim GM: Knicks ‘liked’ Lin since Harvard
• Time Warner, MSG Network resolve impasse
• Lin spurring growth for NBA China; Yao ‘happy’

Photo Wire

New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin (17) shoots against the New Orleans Hornets during the first half of an NBA basketball…

(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

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Team Stat Comparison

	New Orleans	New York
Points	89	85
FG Made-Attempted	32-75 (.427)	31-75 (.413)
3P Made-Attempted	7-12 (.583)	4-24 (.167)
FT Made-Attempted	18-23 (.783)	19-29 (.655)
Rebounds (Offensive-Total)	9-37	15-47
Assists	23	13
Turnovers	18	21
Steals	14	9
Blocks	3	5
Fast Break Points	15	11
Fouls (Tech/Flagrant)	25 (0/0)	17 (0/0)
Largest Lead	14	0

Top Performers

New Orleans		New York
	T. Ariza Points: 25 Reb: 8 Ast: 1 Stl: 3 Blk: 2		A. Stoudemire Points: 26 Reb: 12 Ast: 0 Stl: 1 Blk: 0

Game Leaders

	New Orleans	New York
Points	T. Ariza 25	A. Stoudemire 26
Rebounds	G. Ayon 11	A. Stoudemire 12
Assists	G. Vasquez 11	J. Lin 5
Steals	T. Ariza 3	J. Lin 4
Blocks	T. Ariza 2	T. Chandler 2
Team rosters: New Orleans | New York

Next 5 Games

New Orleans	New York
02/20 @OKC 8:00pm 02/21 @IND 7:00pm 02/22 @CLE 7:00pm 02/28 @CHI 8:00pm 02/29 TOR 8:00pm	02/19 DAL 1:00pm 02/20 NJ 7:30pm 02/22 ATL 7:30pm 02/23 @MIA 7:00pm 02/29 CLE 7:30pm
Complete Schedule: New Orleans | New York

Research Notes

NEXT LEVEL: Jeremy Lin had a career-high nine turnovers Friday against the Hornets. He is now averaging 6.4 turnovers per game since taking over as a starter for the Knicks. Lin’s eight first-half turnovers were the most in any half in the NBA this season, tying the mark he set against the Jazz on Feb. 6. Lin continues to struggle with turnovers as the pick-and-roll ball handler and 71.1 percent of his turnovers in the last seven games have come on pick-and-roll plays. [+]

NEXT LEVEL: Jeremy Lin scored 26 points Friday but struggled from inside 5 feet, making just 2 of 8 field goals. Entering Friday’s game Lin was shooting 57 percent this season from inside 5 feet and over 60 percent from that distance during the Knicks seven-game winning streak. Lin’s two made field goals from inside 5 feet were his fewest over the last eight games. [+]

ESPN Stats & Information

NEW YORK — Can’t Lin ‘em all.

Not the way Jeremy Lin handled the ball Friday night, and he put the blame for the loss that halted Linsanity squarely on himself.

Lin committed nine turnovers, tied for the most in the NBA this season, and New York’s seven-game winning streak was stopped 89-85 by the New Orleans Hornets.

Lin scored 26 points but his turnovers nearly doubled his five assists, and the Knicks lost for the first time with Lin as a starter, falling back below .500 at 15-16 heading into a matchup with the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.

“Just a lackluster effort on my part coming out and careless with the ball, and so nine turnovers is obviously never going to get it done from your primary ballhandler,” Lin said. “It’s on me in terms of taking care of the ball and also the game in general.

“I think everyone wants to credit me for this last seven games, then I definitely deserve this one on my shoulders and so that’s fine with me.”

Trevor Ariza scored 25 points for the Hornets, who have won three in a row after a 4-23 start. Marco Belinelli added 17.

Amare Stoudemire had 26 points and 12 rebounds for New York.

Playing for the sixth straight game without injured All-Star Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks missed 20 of their 24 3-point attempts, were only 19-of-29 on free throws and were flat early, quieting a crowd that has been buzzing since Lin joined the rotation.

“Obviously it’s very disappointing just because we felt like, I felt like this could’ve been a good game for us to win,” Lin said. “But all the respect to New Orleans for what they did. They came in here with a great game plan and they shot well and they played harder than we did and they got the win.”

Down by 12 early in the fourth, the Knicks made a run with Lin on the bench and cut it to 73-71 when Jared Jeffries hit a free throw after Lin returned during a timeout with 5:29 left.

The Knicks got it down to two again on Lin’s free throws with 1:06 to play, but Gustavo Ayonanswered with a bucket, Lin missed wildly on a drive to the basket, and when Belinelli’s free throws with 25 seconds left made it 87-82, fans began heading for the exits, perhaps in search of Lin-burgers, “Lings” — Asian-spiced chicken wings — or “Lintinis,” Lin-spired items that have begun popping up at bars around the city.

“It’s the NBA, man. I mean, the kid is really good. I love his passion. What I love about him is he is so humble. He deserves everything he got right now and everything he is going through because, you know, the way he handles himself,” Hornets guard Greivis Vasquez said. “But tonight it was a little bit different. We came out and played great team defense.”

Thus ended a remarkable run by the Knicks, who were 8-15 when coach Mike D’Antoni finally turned to Lin, the undrafted point guard from Harvard who was perhaps days from being cut for the third time this season when he got this sputtering team on track.

The Knicks only figure to get stronger in the coming days. Anthony worked out before the game and is close to returning, and the Knicks signed his former Denver teammate, J.R. Smith, on Friday. Smith is eligible to return to the NBA after his Chinese team’s season ended, and the Knicks believe he will strengthen their poor 3-point shooting.

But none of that helped Friday.

“They’re long and they did defend well,” D’Antoni said. “But at the same time, I was telling him he’s trying to make the hardest pass out there; he’s trying to make the home run pass. That will happen for young guys. When they collapse so much, he has to kick. At the same time, we weren’t making any outside shots, so they weren’t coming out.

“He’ll learn. He’ll get through it. I thought he played well. Second half, he adjusted.”

The poor performance came just as many New York residents finally got to see Lin for the first time. Fueled largely by the player’s popularity, MSG network and Time Warner reached a tentative deal Friday that puts Knicks games back on TV for some 2 million Time Warner Cable subscribers in the New York area. New York state officials and the NBA had pressured the companies to settle a dispute that began Jan. 1.

The stalemate left some fans out of Linsanity, which has made the Knicks the story in New York, where they have ranked much lower on the sports scene in recent years. The crowd of cameras and reporters at the morning shootaround was so large that one reporter cracked that the Knicks must have signed Kobe Bryant.

Who needs him? The Knicks already beat the Lakers, when Lin poured in 38 points to outscore Bryant.

That’s turned Lin, who graced the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated, into one of sports’ most unlikely stars.

“I lived through Vinsanity when I was with Toronto in Canada, and that was big then, but this is bigger than that,” said Knicks interim general manager Glen Grunwald, referring to when Vince Carter played for the Raptors. “It’s really hard to believe.”

But it was finally halted in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd in which many fans wore shirts that read either Lin or Linsanity above his No. 17.

Spike Lee, who usually wears Landry Fields‘ No. 2, switched up to a different model. He donned Lin’s high school jersey from Palo Alto, Calif., a dark green No. 4 he wore over a neon green long-sleeved shirt, clashing horribly with the Hornets’ green and purple Mardi Gras uniforms.

But the ugliest thing at the start was the Knicks’ offense. Lin’s five turnovers in the first quarter matched their number of baskets, and Chris Kaman had 10 points to lead the Hornets to a 27-13 lead. The Knicks cut it to 43-39 at the half.

“We had a few lulls in the second and a little bit in the fourth. But when you play that kind of defense, to hold that team to 13 points in the first quarter and 19 in the third, you set yourself up to have a chance,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said.

The game was originally scheduled for ESPN, back when the story would have been Chris Paul‘s last visit to New York before the Knicks’ expected pursuit this summer in free agency. Instead, the Knicks took themselves out of the free-agent market by acquiring Tyson Chandler, Paul was dealt the Clippers and the Knicks looked like they might have lasting point guard woes until Lin’s emergence.

But he’s been turnover prone — committing at least six in five straight games — and it finally came back to cost the Knicks this time.

“It takes a few games like this in order to learn from the mistakes,” Stoudemire said. “It’s a learning curve for him right now. He’s going to watch film, I’m sure, and get better.”

Game notes
NBAstore.com has shipped Lin merchandise to 23 countries since Feb. 4, with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia ranking behind only the United States and Canada in largest shipments. … The Knicks had won the previous six meetings. Their longest current winning streak against an opponent is eight straight wins over Washington. … The Knicks paid tribute to former Mets catcher Gary Carter, who died Thursday, during a first-quarter timeout.