Jeremy Lin: Every New Yorker’s Valentine
By musiclover - Tue Feb 14, 4:01 pm
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And on this Valentine’s Day, New York needed a new heartthrob like Lin of the Knicks to make this city of immigrants fall for a sports star the way the Italians sang “Amore,” to Joe DiMaggio, the way Dominicans adored Jose Reyes, the way the Irish shelled out the green to watch Gerry Cooney fight.
As I was eating in Tanko on Bell Blvd. last weekend, hands down the best Chinese place in Bayside, Queens, my son and his two hoops teammates needed a hometown winner to root for after a tough loss. The waitresses overheard them raving over Lin and also wanted to talk — make that gush — about him.
“I rarely watch basketball,” said Mandy, the usually expressionless waitress who was now beaming. “Except now when Jeremy Lin is playing!”
“I love Jeremy Lin, too,” said Kathy, the hostess. “He makes me so proud. I used to root for Yao Ming but he disappointed me because he was always hurt. But Jeremy, he’s just amazing!”
The two women whispered to each other in Chinese but I didn’t need an interpreter to understand as they fanned themselves and broke up laughing like adoring bobby soxers.
“Jeremy’s so cute,” said Kathy, patting her heart. “And he went to Harvard. And he’s Taiwanese. Go Knicks!”
When I bought my usual coffee the next morning in Wan Wan Grocery, which Bayside locals call Charlie’s, co-owner Kevin said, “All everybody — Asian, white, black, Spanish — talks about is Jeremy Lin. Everybody reads the Daily News backwards this week.”
“He sleeps on his brother’s couch like the rest of us when we come to New York,” said Kevin’s brother-in-law, Tony. “He won’t be sleeping there for long.”
Over in Brooklyn, Linmania has spread like a fastbreak since the bench-warmer replaced an injured Carmelo Anthony just as the understudy did in “A Star Is Born.” Lin astounded the press and the fans, humbly leading the faltering Knicks to five straight victories.
“Growing up Chinese-American in predominantly Irish-Italian Windsor Terrace in the 1970s-’80s, racial insults were as routine as having lunch,” says Cathy Lau-Hunt, a graphic designer, lead singer of a rock band called Full Disclosure, and a teacher at the Museum of Chinese in America.
“I didn’t have a Jeremy Lin to elevate me above the cruel comments. Back then, Chinese people were viewed as many things, mostly unfavorable, and athlete was not one of them. So I am proud to be a Jeremy Lin fan. What’s not to love about this kid? I am a youth coach and a parent, and he is everything you could ask for: a Harvard graduate and a basketball player who seems to be transforming the Knicks into a team to watch again. And he’s Chinese!”
In the heart of Flushing, Queens, Joey Chiang, 40, a Taiwanese builder of several high-rise luxury condos, said, “Lin is the man! I was at the Garden after Kobe Bryant said he never heard of Jeremy Lin. Well, 38 amazing points later Kobe’ll never forget Jeremy Lin. I sponsor and coach a Chinese hoops team of teenagers named Super Core — after two of my companies — in the local Chinese Community Basketball Association League. On the Knicks, Lin’s a point guard, making plays happen. In the community, I can’t tell you how much Lin will inspire the young guys I coach. Me, I’m going back to the Garden to see Lin again on Wednesday.”
Lau-Hunt in Brooklyn sees Lin as the “underdog of all heroes: not drafted by the NBA out of high school, his talents overlooked, perhaps due to his ethnicity. . . . I don’t do much ethnic flag-waving, but these days I’m walking around Windsor Terrace saying, ‘Yeah, Jeremy Lin, he’s one of my peeps.’ Feeling young again, getting back at all of those kids in grade school that made fun of me. Right now, it is a great time to be a Chinese-American in the streets of Brooklyn. Thanks, Jeremy!”
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