Anatomy Of A Fad

For the last couple of days the sports world has been dominated by the story of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. For those of you who may not follow professional basketball, Lin is the sensation who came out of nowhere and is currently taking the league by storm. After being undrafted out of Harvard (yep, that Harvard) two years ago, Lin played with the Mavericks in the summer league and was eventually signed as a free agent by the Golden State Warriors. However they really didn't have a spot for him, he barely played during his first year and was released after the season. He was with the Houston Rockets at the start of this season before being released again and catching on with the Knicks. After a brief demotion down to the developmental league, Lin was pressed into service due to injuries. But, he made the most of his opportunity and scored more points in his first five starts than anyone else in the history of the league. (Go ahead, read that last part again.) As you can imagine, this had led to a flood of news coverage. Lin has been the lead story on "SportsCenter" for a few days and people can't seem to stop talking about it. Even the President weighed in on Lin the other day. He is officially a fad. Now, some people can't seem to figure out what the big deal is or why Lin is such a major news phenomenon, but I say it is because he is a perfect combination of all the things you need to make a really good fad. We'll take them one at a time.

-Have A Good Story. America loves a good underdog story and Lin has that in spades. First off, he is Taiwanese-American, which means he has probably been fighting against Asian-athlete stereotypes his entire life. This isn't like Yao Ming where people focused on the fact that he is 7'6" - Lin is a normal-sized human and probably overlooked most of his athletic career, which is why he played his college ball where he did. Also, he's coming from the Ivy League, which isn't exactly a hotbed of basketball talent. That means he's also fighting the nerd stereotype. Ivy League athletes are supposed to go into owning NBA teams, not playing for them. You've also got the undrafted thing, meaning he has everyone who was ever told they were too slow, short or uncoordinated to make a team pulling for him. Lastly, on a team of millionaires, Lin is making the league minimum. Until about three days ago he was sleeping on a teammate's couch because he didn't know if he was going to be on the Knicks all season. He's even got a last name you can easily turn into a play on a bunch of other words so as to dominate the headlines. The entire thing seems almost like it was written by Hollywood.

-Be Unexpected. When a big-budget movie with a lot of backing from the studio makes a ton of money, no one is shocked. It is when the little, independent movies like "The Blair Witch" project are box-office gold that people take notice. Basketball is the most predictable of all the professional sports leagues. Commissioner David Stern even admitted as much saying, "Normally you know who is going to be playing in the league by the McDonald's High School All-American Game." That is why an undrafted kid out of Harvard having the hottest selling jersey in the NBA (currently back-ordered for two months) is such a cool event - no one saw this coming. In a league where we all have a pretty good idea of which teams are going to be good and which teams are headed for the lottery before the season even starts, a little surprise is a good thing. 

-Location. Being in a big-market isn't as much of a necessity as it used to be in creating a fad. I mean, Tim Tebow was the biggest thing in the NFL and it is not like Denver is a major media center. That being said, it probably doesn't hurt that Lin is playing in New York for one of the NBA's flagship franchises. Everything that happens on the Knicks is immediately made more important just because it is New York. I would like to think that we would be paying attention to someone playing this well if they were in a city like Milwaukee, but I can't say that with a ton of conviction.

-Timing. Post-Super Bowl, February is kind of a dead zone for sports. The NCAA basketball season is slowly making it's way to the end of the regular season, but most people people won't pay attention until March Madness. Pitchers and catchers are just starting to report, the NHL season still had a third of the regular season to play, golf doesn't get interesting until the Masters and even in NASCAR the Daytona 500 is scheduled late this year. Jeremy Lin filled in what would normally be a vacuum of news. If he was doing this at the start of November, I do not think we would all be fighting a case of Linsanity.

-Winning. Bottom line, however, is that Lin is getting all this attention because he deserves it. Before he was put in as a starter the Knicks were middling along, desperate for leadership in an offense which puts more emphasis on the point guard than almost any other team in the league. Since he became a starter, they have transformed into an exciting, winning team. Admittedly, they have not beaten any championship contenders or even particularly strong teams, but at least they are interesting. At this point, I think that is all Knicks fans are looking for.

Now, as often happens with any fad, the backlash has already started. Boxer Floyd Mayweather tweeted that Lin is only getting this attention because he is Asian, adding that black players do the same things all the time with none of the attention. (Yes, because LeBron James is such an unknown figure.) While no one particularly likes Mayweather, I have no doubt he is not the only person who feels this way. On top of that comes the threat of over-saturation. Like I said before, Lin has been the top story on ESPN for a few days now so, much like a passenger in your car hitting 'repeat' on a song dozens of time, you can only hear the same notes for so long before you get sick of it. Also, it is doubtful Lin can keep this pace up. With a condensed NBA schedule and Lin playing 40 minutes a night, there is an above-average chance he'll start to fade. And as coaches start to pick apart his game the weaknesses will become apparent and good teams will learn how to shut him down. Once his play slips people will move on to the next fad. You get the feeling the kid is a shooting star and not someone who will be doing this for years, but I say just enjoy it while it lasts. Seriously, what else do the Knicks have going for them right now?