Before the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin was nothing more than
a Harvard graduate chasing his dreams. Yet, over night, he became a sensation.
He is more than a just a good basketball player, he is a movement and a few
weeks back, the biggest and most buzz-worthy thing in sport.
Jeremy Lin is the first Taiwanese-American to play in the
NBA, a sport league where 76% of the players are African American. Lin’s story rises
above the traditional sport story. His sudden rise to stardom has triggered a
massive cultural and economic phenomenon.
After one week of Lin's phenomenal performance on the court, the Knicks have seen a difference throughout their franchise. Ticket prices, for instance, are rising an unmeasured amount. As shown below, the week following the Carmelo Anthony trade last season, the average price for Knicks tickets jumped twenty-five percent (from $204 to $256) according to TiqIQ. Jeremy Lin has had an even larger effect. Home game ticket prices increased on average thirty-three percent (from $229 to $304). Fans love a great Cinderella story.
A week after his first big performance on February 4, Jeremy Lin was just named as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, after picking up the same honor in the NBA D-League. Forbes says that Jeremy Lin “is the fastest growing athlete brand in the world”. He even received a shout-out from Phoenix Sun's two-time NBA MVP point guard, Steve Nash:
In his first week of stardom, "Lin" has been mentioned more than 401K times and his following increases daily.
In his first week of stardom, "Lin" has been mentioned more than 401K times and his following increases daily.
It is said that "Linsanity" is the reasoning behind ending MSG's and Time Warner Cable's 48-day cable dispute.
On February 13, Bloomberg reported that Jeremy Lin’s jersey has been the number one overall selling jersey on NBA.com, since February 4. Knicks apparel accounted for five of NBA.com’s top ten selling items.
- Rayna Linowes
Lin's popularity can mostly be attributed to his performance as a fine athlete. The rest of the hype, however, is due to the cultural hegemony of basketball. When basketball first began it was unheard of for the star player to be black. With time it became unheard of for the star player to be white. Now society is faced with a new star player being Asian and they choose to respond with racially charged words and antics in order to process such a change. Professional sports can be an example of how far we have come, but also have far we still have to go.
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