Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin has a lucrative contract and a team that believes in him, but at one point things were not so easy for the Asian star, as he said in an interview with "60 Minutes" that he felt race was a barrier for him getting a Division I basketball scholarship.
According to ESPN.com, Lin spoke about the barriers in basketball due to his race in the interview, saying that despite taking his team to the high school championship and winning the Northern California Division II Player of the Year, he was passed over for scholarships from top schools in the area like UCLA and Stanford. Lin was named to the All-State team and averaged over 15 points with seven assists and five steals in high school while leading Palo Alto a 32-1 record.
Lin eventually found his place at Harvard, where he made the all-conference team twice before making it into the NBA as an undrafted free agent with the Golden State Warriors. Lin said he felt that being undrafted was another thing connected to his race and commissioner David Stern said in the interview that he agreed.
Lin made his time with the New York Knicks count and the "Linsanity" trend was born as he led the team on a winning streak and averaged over 14 points and six assists in 32 games. He flipped that into a three-year, $25 million deal with the Rockets and has been helping the team in their march to the playoffs by averaging over 13 points with six assists and three rebounds per game.
The "60 Minutes" segment with Charlie Rose showed Lin's life story and his opinions on his team now as well as other Asian players and how stereotypes can permeate over talent. The Rockets are currently sixth in the Western conference and are making a hard push as the postseason approaches.
Houston is third in the Southwest division with a 43-34 record and is ranked first in the NBA in scoring, with over 106 per game. The team is ranked ninth in rebounding and fifth in assists with over 23 per game while allowing 102 points per game, ranked 28th in the league. Lin led the team with 23 points and lost 132-114 on Saturday against the Nuggets.
"Well, I think the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian-American, which, you know, is a whole different issue but ... I think that was a barrier," Lin told Charlie Rose in a "60 Minutes" interview that will air Sunday night. "I mean ... it's a stereotype."
