William Wallace is a regular Saturday Down South contributor. His uncensored views of college football are offensive to some, yet embraced by many.

The Offseason: Pursuing the path of least resistance until 2012 kickoff…

We find ourselves in the dreaded dead zone between signing day and spring practice. The only interesting thing happening in college football is rising high school seniors committing to schools they are either lifelong fans of or schools they know they are lucky to have scholarship offers from. It’s dead out there which is why I’m so thankful for a blessing from the Far-East…New York.

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Jeremy Lin

Well, nobody saw this coming. The concept of the unexpected is nothing original to sports, in fact the world of sports is probably the most common environment for the unexpected in American culture. So why has Jeremy Lin’s unexpected ascent crossed over? Why is this bigger than a basketball story? It’s because he’s Asian-American.

Pretending this amazing story is amazing because Jeremy Lin was undrafted, or because he was waived twice this season, or because he went to Harvard is burying the lead and ignoring the main reason all of those other events occurred. All of those things happened because he was an Asian-American basketball player in a country that doesn’t pay attention to Asian-American basketball players. If he was Jeremy Lynn, the 6’4″ white guy from California this story would be ‘Lynntresting’ but not ‘Lynnsane.’

I bounced this theory off a buddy of mine last week and he said, “Does it matter that he’s Asian-American?”

I responded, without hesitation, “Absolutely it does.”

Yao Ming’s story is incredible in its own right, but the idea that a 7’6” guy is good at basketball is hardly shocking. The NBA has a long history of finding 7-foot-tall diamonds in the rough from all over the globe. Hell, they found Manute Bol in Sudan and Shawn Bradley at BYU. Yao never had to overcome the prejudices of coaches and scouts from little league through the NBA Draft. Basketball Scouts can find Yao in Shanghai and make him the #1 pick but Jeremy Lin goes unnoticed in Palo Alto, California? They didn’t see Lin as a future NBA guard because they couldn’t get past seeing him as the Asian kid. Yao Ming wasn’t the Asian kid on the court until he got to the NBA because he grew up in Asia . Calling Yao “The Asian guy” in Asia would be like calling somebody the “The white guy in the fraternity.” It’s unnecessary. Jeremy Lin was “The Asian Kid” every time he stepped on the court for his entire life. Here is a picture of Palo Alto High School celebrating the 2006 State Championship. How long did it take you to find Jeremy Lin? )

Jeremy Lin led Palo Alto High School to the 2005-2006 California Division II state title. He was 1st team All-State and Division II player of the year and still couldn’t get a scholarship? Even in a state as liberal as California and a town as progressive as Palo Alto, nobody gave the Asian kid a second look. I wanted to see who Stanford Basketball was giving scholarships out to in 2005-2006 and found this page. Check out the Non-rated guard at the bottom of the page. By the way, what could this Stanford team have been? The Lopez Twins and Landry Fields are in the league. Throw in Jeremy Lin at point that team is in the final four. Too bad they didn’t notice the Asian Kid playing 2.4 miles away from campus (per Google Maps).

Listen, there are bigger tragedies in life than going to Harvard, The Stansbury of the East.  Making the league from Harvard is unique but it’s not the reason for ‘Linsanity’. If that was true America would be “Having Fitz” over Ryan Fitzpatrick (I’m trademarking that), the Buffalo Bills quarterback from Harvard. When Barack Obama won the election in 2008 the headlines didn’t say, “Harvard Grad Wins Presidency.” There were bigger storylines. ‘Linsanity’ is not about Harvard. (Obama, Zuckerberg, Fitzpartick, Lin? Get worked, Yale!)

So please stop saying clichés like, “He looks like one of us out there” because he doesn’t, unless you are 6’4” 210 and are of Taiwanese descent. Stop saying, “His game is so unique” because it’s not. He’s a tall, athletic, point who penetrates the paint, has decent range, plays smart and has good court vision. Do keep saying, “He’s the Asian kid for the Knicks who came out of nowhere and is awesome at basketball,” because that’s true. Keep saying, “That’s cool, I’ve never seen an Asian guy dunk like that,” because we haven’t and it is cool. Keep saying, “Lin is legit,” because he is and he’ll be in the league for years to come. Keep celebrating how another blind spot in our sporting culture, The Asian-American Basketball player, has been exposed.

On the scale of racial-historical significance, Lin’s breakout isn’t Jackie Robinson breaking the Baseball color barrier but it isn’t Brent Berry winning the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, either. It’s a very big deal and a triumph for the Asian-American community. Congrats, Jeremy. Keep dunking on guy’s heads and please don’t take your talents to South Beach.