Okay...
Not to put down Lin or anything, but how on EARTH is this a so-called "rags-to-riches" story?
shareHe grew up in a middle class family, he went to Harvard...definitely rags to riches...NOT
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MovieChat Forums > Linsanity (2013) Discussion > Okay...
Only California state HS player of the year, EVER, to receive zero d1 scholarship offers.
Takes Harvard to its best season in 70 years. Faces viscous racist taunts regularly. Goes undrafted.
Cut by 2 NBA teams who didn't really give him a chance. About to be cut by NY but in his one opportunity saves the Knicks who were 8-15 at the time.
Real life Rudy, Rocky, The Express.
A lot of haters here or voting the movie down never even saw this movie yet..
Having a small streak of good games is hardly SAVING anything.
He got away with it because he was hot and other teams didn't take him seriously. Notice how as soon as he got to the Rockets he became irrelevant. He's an average NBA player and a below average point guard in a time when there is a plethora of good point guards.
Lin averaged 13.4 points, 6.1 assists and 1.6 steals his first year in Houston as the starting point guard. Good numbers, not great, but not irrelevant.
This year as a sixth man, he's scoring more in fewer minutes, averaging 14.1 points, 4.2 assists and 1.0 steals while shooting 47.2% from the field.
Plus he's making 8.3 million per year playing basketball, instead of some grueling 100-200K job like the rest of his Harvard classmates. So, not rags, but definitely riches.
I assume "rags-to-riches" is more about Lin's position as a basketball player than his family's socio-economic status when he was growing up. No scholarship offers, undrafted, almost unsigned out of Summer League if not for the father of a kid he once knew, repeatedly sent to the D-League and cut twice -- to major sensation, record-breaking start-of-career stats, turning around the Knicks, signing a major contract, etc. All when he was undoubtedly days away from being cut by Knicks, which could have effectively ended his chances for an NBA career. You can't be much lower or unknown as an NBA player as Lin was before the Nets game, and the idea that he'd be a household name with a multi-million dollar contract in 4-5 months would have been crazy to even consider. "Rags-to-riches" works for me.
shareThe only reason his story made any news at all was because of where he was playing. If he had been playing for a team in a minor market (Charlotte, Milwaukee) we would have probably never heard about him. But since he was playing in New York, every media outlet picked up on him and created the "sensation". What has he done since he left NY?
shareHis basketball career went from rags to riches. He was the 15th player on a 15-man roster, and bounced around between 3 NBA teams and the D-league without really getting a chance to prove he belonged in the NBA. Then the Knicks turned to him out of desperation and he lit up the best players in the world not just for one or two games, but for two weeks. He saved his dream of playing pro ball and woke up a moribund franchise (which promptly let him leave as a free agent and is moribund once again.)
In da knix desperation, they turned 2 a man they don't fully understand....
Werd 2 ur mudda, bruddafcker