Quick, name an Asian-American basketball player. Yao Ming? Yi Jianlian? Wrong, they’re full-on Chinese. And that’s the point. Only 0.4 percent of men’s college basketball players are Asian-American.
According to the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, there were only 19 Asian-American players in Division I basketball in 2006-07, far out of line with the 4.4 percent population of the country (that’s a third of the African-American population.) Is it a case of the kids not going into the game, or is there discrimination?“It’s a sport for white and black people,” says Jeremy Lin, the starting point guard for (where else?) Harvard. “You don’t get respect for being an Asian American basketball player in the U.S.”
After Palo Alto High won the Division II state title in 2006, Lin’s senior season, he was named first-team All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year. He was The Chronicle’s Metro Player of the Year. Considering those honors and his senior stats - 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 6.2 rebounds and five steals - Lin thought he’d get at least a few Division I scholarship offers.He got none.“I’m not saying top-5 state automatically gets you offers,” Lin said, “but I do think (my ethnicity) did affect the way coaches recruited me. I think if I were a different race, I would’ve been treated differently.”
It’s the same story in the coaching ranks. In a year that has seen the Mariners hire Don Wakamatsu and the Heat hire Filipino-American Erik Spoelstra, there are only two Asian American head coaches in Divisions I and II, and Rex Walters at the University of San Francisco is only half Japanese (Jeff Hironaka is coach at Seattle Pacific).
Hironaka has interviewed in vain for Division I jobs.“I was told they needed to hire an African-American, and another school said they needed to hire a Caucasian,” Hironaka said. “I’m not one or the other, so then I’m out.“I understand assistant coaches you have to recruit - most (players) are Caucasian - so they ask, ‘What can you help us do? Recruit Asians?’”
5:45 pm on December 16th, 2008
Where are all the Asian-American Basketballers?
In math class?
5:49 pm on December 16th, 2008
Basketball is a sport for tall people. Asians are, on average, short. End of story.
5:49 pm on December 16th, 2008
Ancient Chinese secret perhaps?
5:55 pm on December 16th, 2008
They're working on a new version of basketball, which will be smaller & more efficient.
6:09 pm on December 16th, 2008
I want to know where have all the cowboys gone.
6:10 pm on December 16th, 2008
I saw Lin play versus Northeastern the other day, kid is pretty legit. I would be happy to have him on my team any day of the week, don't know if he is quite BCS talent, but for sure a good mid-major program (read: not Harvard) would have really befitted
6:44 pm on December 16th, 2008
I want to know why there aren't more African-Americans playing hockey.
9:24 pm on December 16th, 2008
Many Asian-Americans probably became disillusioned with basketball when Shaq make his "wang dang ching chong" comments to Yao Ming.
9:35 pm on December 16th, 2008
And when asked to apologize, Shaq said, "Me so solly!"
1:26 am on December 18th, 2008
Rex Walters is the coach at the University of San Francisco, not South Florida…
10:35 pm on December 18th, 2008
nba color barrier was broken by japanese-american wataru misaka, but with very little attention (ie, jackie robinson). this was during a time of japanese-american concentration camps on US soil. asians have been and continue to get overlooked in basketball.
http://www.nba.com/historical/playerfile/index.html?player=wat_misaka
10:41 pm on December 18th, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wataru_Misaka
2:19 pm on December 23rd, 2008
Gee, lost in this mix is the third member of the Houston Univ.'s Phi Slamma Jamma—Akeem Olajawon; Clyde The Guide Drexler and… MASAO EDDIE OWENS!!!
6:23 pm on July 18th, 2010
I’m Asian and I really didn’t think this basketball discrimination existed until it happened to my brother. My bro tried out for the junior team and didn’t make the first cut, but when he tried out for the senior team he made it. When there was a game between senior and junior teams, he let it on in scoring and showed that junior coach. My bro is a humble guy, but his teammates say the junior coach is racist towards asians .
3:53 am on April 1st, 2011
It’s exactly true in my opinion.. As an Asian American you don’t get respect for being a basketball player.. It’s tough, my high school basketball coach cut me even though I was play really well against the other basketball team members. Every time at the park people expect to mess me up on defense or sag off me on defense, but I usually end up surprising them, people pass me the ball the least even though I’m the best on the team. I constantly get into arguments when we play, it’s just ridiculous, if you want to make it as an Asian basketball player you got to shine twice as much.