Derrick Rose Will Never Start Another All-Star Game Thanks To Jeremy Lin
It’s a sad state of play when the best point guard in the league, let alone in his own conference, won’t be able to start in the NBA All-Star Game to represent his team, town and conference. This however, will come to be known as the Jeremy Lin factor in the future. The Knicks overnight hero has become a sensation around the world, and it’s only a matter of time before Lin embraces the Yao Ming treatment from fans.
For years, the Chinese icon known as Yao took the NBA All-Star voting process by storm. Yes, Ming was a freak of nature in stature and was pretty good when he was at full strength. Regardless, Yao was unable to ever stay healthy for an entire NBA season. Injuires plagued the oversized man and would later prevent him from moving forward in his NBA career.
Yao Ming played eight years in the league and was named to eight All-Star games. That stat alone makes me sick. Ming only played one full, 82-game NBA regular season….ONE!!! And somehow, someway he was always being voted in by the fans to start the ASG.
I hope you don’t ask how. It is pretty obvious. China overwhelms our country when it comes to population, especially throughout the rest of the world. So why wouldn’t the Chinese litter the all-star voting boxes with Yao Ming’s name? It was unfair to the rest of the NBA players like Shaq, who would get the shaft when Yao was voted to start the game over him. The funny part is, when it’s all said and done Shaq will go down as one of the most dominant big men to ever play the game of basketball. Meanwhile, Yao will be forever known as one of the softest big men in NBA history, right next to Bill Walton.
Jeremy Lin is a 6-foot, 3-inch, Americanized version of Yao Ming. No, Lin isn’t from China and didn’t win a Gold medal with the Chinese National Team before the start of his NBA career like Yao. Yet, Lin did go to Harvard where he became educated in the classroom and grew up in the United States school of hard knocks, better known as an American playground, where Lin fine-tuned his game. Both players come from different places, but their understanding of basketball is so very similar.
Let’s not get off track too much. Jeremy Lin is good, but Derrick Rose is great. In fact, Derrick Rose is the reigning MVP (youngest in NBA history) and currently the most dominant point guard in the league. The things that Rose can do on a basketball floor have never been seen in one total package, especially at the point guard position. The fact that he has been hurt and not playing as of late has only fueled the Linsanity. Now, everyone thinks Lin is the greatest point guard of all-time becuase he has a sample-size of seven games. Give me a break.
The worst part is that Rose will never again start an all-star game with the love Lin has been shown by people outside of the United States of America. Lin never played in Taiwan, China or Japan but I guarantee he gets a majoirty vote from the Asian population. I have a bad feeling, no matter how poor or well he is playing during a particular season, Lin will get the nod over the game’s best point guard time after time.
It is a sad state, but one we have been living in since 2002 when Yao Ming entered a basketball arena in the United States. No matter if Yao played in five games or 45 games, he would be voted to start in the all-star game wrongfully over Shaquille O’Neal, a legend by most standards. The same situation is about to occur with Jeremy Lin and Derrick Rose. The Knicks guard will go down as an above average talent that superseded a future Hall-of-Famer in the form of Derrick Rose for every All-Star Game after 2012.
Don’t get me wrong, Jeremy Lin is a “good” basketball player. However, he is no star like the rest of the world is making him out to be, at least not yet. Let him play an entire season in a system that is not Mike D’Antoni’s and see how great he is. You put Derrick Rose anywhere else and his game doesn’t change a bit and that is the bottom line of a real superstar talent versus a system-player like Lin. Don’t judge a player based on the color of his skin. Judge them on the depths of their basketball talent.
Follow Tony Piraro on Twitter @TonyPiraro
