Hoop Dreams

by Keane Shum There is one, and only one, very specific demographic rooting against Jeremy Lin, the sudden, inexplicable new star point guard for the New York Knicks. They are the conspirators behind an age-old scheme, one in which the dreams of young Chinese children all over the world have been dashed for generations. They may seem well-intentioned, even loving, but their true motives are quite nefarious. They are—and I know them well—the Chinese mothers of basketball-obsessed teenage boys (and sometimes girls). To these mothers, this past week, in which Lin scored more points than anyone else in NBA history has in their first four starts and led the Knicks to five straight wins, including one over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, was neither entertainment nor inspiration. Instead, it has been a troubling foil to their master plan. For no longer can they say, as my mother often did to me, that there is no way a little Asian kid can ever play in the NBA. “Yes I...