Ten years already. It’s been ten years since the storm passed. It has been ten years since indecency gave way to memories. What do we keep from the Linsanity madness? What do we keep from this brief period spent staring at the revelation of a non-grade from Harvard? To celebrate the shortest and most intense of NBA climaxes, let’s dive headfirst into the Pensieve, into the world of Jeremy Lin. Fourth episode, when the media madness came.
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Mediatization, this phenomenon which poses us as a traitor in front of a crowd of strangers. Jeremy Lin is the epitome of the guy who asked to be successful, not let others know. Inevitably, when one is one of the first Asian players to succeed in the NBA, the walls do not need ears for the news to go around the globe. An unranked man who beats up the country of McCain fries, the newspapers love him, the paparazzi no longer set limits, the effervescence is at its peak.
How long has it been since the NBA was seen on a French television news? Far from us the idea of a reproach – to each culture its echoes – it is simply extremely rare to speak orange ball on the channels of the soil. The features are sometimes magnified, as when France Télévisions presented “Frank Ntilikina’s America”. The former SIG Strasbourg man has his qualities, that’s obvious, but the butcher speaks better about his meat than the consumer – us first. That is not the subject. A little guy managed the feat of going to the France 2 newspaper, without a French passport, just with his qualities as a basketball player. His name is Jeremy Shu-How Lin. A bench exit, ten days spent in posterity, all the cameras in the world have focused. At this precise moment, the American-Taiwanese makes a cross on anonymity. He is considered an idol in Asia and could easily become president of Taiwan. If he returns to the country – on holiday or otherwise – it is now impossible for him to go unnoticed: his car door opens, a human tide surges. In a documentary by Peter Radovich for CBS News, one of the player’s famous schemes to escape from his hotel is staged. To reach a basketball court in downtown Taipei – the capital of Taiwan – Jeremy Lin walks out with a giant Hello Kitty head on his shoulders. What makes us talk about “staging” is that there are probably smarter and less saucy disguises than this thing. A guy in basketball gear who comes out camouflaged, moreover without any of the journalists making the connection. However, this gives an idea of the level of involvement necessary to find tranquility. The price of information on Jeremy Lin has exploded, journalists know it, and the public is fond of it.
“So Maryse, who is the one who even arouses the admiration of Barack Obama? ». For Laurent Bégé Delahousse to don the NBA journalist costume, an external link had to validate Jeremy Lin. There are many points of reference who admire the Knicks point guard. Whether they were actors, politicians or even Steve Savidan, the Linsanity tornado did not leave many behind. We are talking about total media coverage. At the time, the Knicks point guard combined almost all the characteristics necessary for the monopoly of attention. He’s Asian, not a physical freak to speak of, was still sleeping on his brother’s couch a month before he exploded, and displays unprecedented audacity. The story is wonderful. People want to know all about the man who chased and captured his American dream. He is also the second most NBA player « googlisé » in 2013, just behind LeBron James – and ahead of Michael Jordan. An interest that has sometimes posed a problem. As of 2012, Jeremy Lin’s grandmother and uncle are living together in suburban Taipei. Without even knowing the rules of basketball, they follow the exploits of family pride on the television. “I only know that when Jeremy put the ball in the basket he did a good thing” says Lin Chu A Men – the 85-year-old grandmother – to the New York Times. But paparazzi and tabloids aren’t just targeting Jeremy Lin. Journalists gather outside the home of his two relatives, hoping to capture photos – or dig up an interview – to feed their front pages. The uncle and grandmother eventually fled to their ancestral village, Beidou, in south-central Taiwan. The paparazzi tracked them down, which forced the two parents to give an interview about Taipei, just to calm the madness. Yes, everything related to Jeremy Lin sells, as evidenced by the cover of the Time. Everywhere in the world, the bitter weekly magazine places Kim Jong-un on the front page of its edition of February 27, 2012. Everywhere, except in Asia where Jeremy Lin steals the show from the dictator and wins the front page. Lunar.
Realize, on the Asian market, Linsanity has overshadowed the new dictator of North Korea. This is to say the power of the media coverage fallen on the American-Taiwanese. To get an idea of it in pictures, here is a video of Jeremy Lin entering Songshan airport in Taipei, in August 2013. It’s been more than a year since the leader released his prose under the lights of the Garden , and yet, the hype still seems to be on top.
“Everything in its time, everything comes to a point, which steak to wait for” said Confucius as he was still working at Buffalo Grill. A new writing of « Linsanity – 10 years later » arrives shortly, to continue celebrating one of the most beautiful spotlights the NBA has ever seen.
Source texte : basketball reference / New York Post / The Athletic / BusinessInsider / New York Times / Twitter / YouTube / ESPN / Bleacher Report / Time / GQ / Sports Illustrated / Daily News / Super Sports / Sports
