MITCH BLATT

In a bizarre turn of events Wednesday, May 15, world champion boxer and Filipino congressman Manny Pacquiao was banned then unbanned from The Grove mall in Los Angeles after expressing his opposition to gay marriage in response to President Barack Obama expressing his support.

The owner of The Grove, Rick Caruso, tweeted, “Boxer Manny Pacquiao is not welcome at The Grove LA. The Grove is a gathering place for all Angelenos, not a place for intolerance.” The Grove is a gathering place for all Angelenos except Pacquiao, and apparently The Grove is also not a gathering a majority of Californians, based on the political views most Californians hold as expressed by their votes in 2008.

According to USA Today, The Grove has reversed itself, but not before an event he was supposed to host at the mall was canceled. It’s strange that the mall got into such an uproar about an athlete’s political thoughts, but the brouhaha will at least add fire to the Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao rivalry after Mayweather appeared to disagree with Pacquiao.

Mayweather said on Twitter, “I stand behind President Obama & support gay marriage. I’m an American citizen & I believe people should live their life the way they want,” a comment that Yahoo! Sports interpreted as him having “tweaked Pacquiao.”

Pacquiao, who is intensely Catholic, first caused controversy by citing Bible verses in opposition to gay marriage, saying the Bible defines marriages as being among people of the opposite sex. His comments quickly caused a splash in political and sports circles with supporters of gay marriage harshly criticizing him.

People expressing and defending their opinions is a healthy part of democracy, but banning people who disagree with you from a mall–while stressing the need for tolerance–is over the top, and Caruso must have realized that when he reportedly changed his mind. If banning athletes from businesses becomes a trend, Steve Nash might find himself unwelcome in some businesses owned by supporters of Arizona’s immigration law. Stephen A. Smith questioned why more athletes don’t express their political opinions in 2008. This is one reason.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what any athlete’s view on social and political issues is, but if athletes are going to say it and it’s going to cause a public controversy, it will be thrown into the news cycle for a short time.

Bob Arum, the promoter of Pacquiao’s upcoming fight against Timothy Bradley, said:

“People have a right to decide for themselves on these issues. So Manny is against same-sex marriage? Guess what? Millions of other people in this country are, too. What’s the problem?”

MITCH BLATT

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has been receiving his fair share of mockery for saying, “I don’t think I’m top five, I think I’m the best,” but you have to have confidence in yourself in order to turn yourself into eventually being one of the top five quarterbacks. You have to have confidence to at least play as well as you can and make the playoffs.

Flacco said,

I assume everybody thinks they’re a top-five quarterback. I mean, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’m top five, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’d be very successful at my job if I didn’t feel that way.

It’s a view that is held by more than a few athletes, even if few of them publicly say so.

When I interviewed Desmond Clark in 2006, he said,

I said if the top tight end was catching 80 passes, that’s where I felt I should be at. I don’t feel any different today. I feel like wherever the top tight end is at, I should be able to put up those type of numbers.

Indeed, it would be surprising if one of the best athletes in the world competing at the most competitive level of their profession didn’t think and express their confidence in their abilities.

But when the claims and the reality are so far apart, as in Flacco’s case, and when the agent is even trying to get his client top five money (if only as a negotiating tactic), a quarterback can expect a little bit of good natured ribbing for publicly expressing belief in such a delusional fantasy.

The terms of the deal have not yet been revealed to the public, but the Yahoo Sports has a big story on it. Read it here: Volvo signs Lin to worldwide endorsement deal

The Asian-American Journalists Association just released guidelines on how to cover Jeremy Lin. Their guidelines didn’t specifically say anything about references to mathematics and academic skills, but this Taiwanese tabloid TV news report also featured one shot of Lin apparently utilizing his kung fu skills and another of him spinning a basketball with chop-sticks.

Here it is:

Watch more NMA News sports videos.

NBA NEWS

Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks will travel to Miami to play the Miami Heat. Already, lots of people are creating hype about it simply because its against one of the best teams in the NBA. But truthfully, the Knicks already beat the Lakers and the defending champion Mavericks. This is just another game.

Stephen A. Smith, however, commenting for ESPN said that LeBron James and Dewyane Wade and the Heat are really good and so they will, like, beat the Knicks or something. Who are we paying attention to Jeremy Lin? We obviously should be paying attention for the Heat… Except that LeBron James is kind of an a-hole, and the Heat is just a team built in free agency.

Jeremy Lin, on the other hand, came out of nowhere to dominate this season. It’s actually a feel-good story as opposed to a feel-bad story.

True, the Knicks also have Carmello Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, but both of them have been injured lately. (Though Carmello’s injury sure has given ESPN something to talk about in relation to whether he can play with Lin.)

Anyway, regardless of who wins, nothing changes. Lin is still the most popular player in the NBA for the time being, and both the Knicks and Heat are still two of the best teams regardless of the result.

But if the Knicks win, you can be sure to hear how having beaten the Heat (as opposed to having beaten the Lakers or Mavericks), the Knicks have finally proven they can play with the best. If the Heat wins, you can hear how Linsanity ended and how “The Knicks still need to prove they can play with the best.” Thanks, ESPN. Those issues will really be proven in June, not now.

JUICED SPORTS

Half-naked photos of Jeremy Lin in bed in his Harvard dorm living quarters have been circulating on the Chinese internet. Take a look:

Juiced Sports found the photos posted to a mop.com thread. The main post of the thread doesn’t contain any text (just photos), and there is no indication where the photos came from. The Mop thread was posted on February 18 at noon Chinese time (Feb. 18 just past midnight in the U.S.) and has since been viewed over 600,000 times.

After Jeremy Lin’s first loss since he was placed in the New York Knicks starting lineup, ESPN.com posted the headline “Chink In The Armor” under a picture of Lin on Friday night. The headline was taken down after 35 minutes, but not before a screenshot was captured that went viral.

Meanwhile, ESPN News anchor Max Bretos asked, “If there is a chink in the armor, where can Lin improve his game?”

The headline writer was fired, and Bretos has been suspended for 30 days.

While “chink in the armor,” is an overused cliche involving sports, the word “ch*nk” is also a racist slur against Chinese, one that Jeremy Lin endured on one occasion coming from a college basketball opponent.

It could very well be that both the headline writer and Bretos made the reference accidentally, as it is often used. I would think that would especially be the case with Bretos, since he perhaps had less time to think about it being live on the air.

Nonetheless, with the conversation about race that Lin’s success has caused, ESPN was right to reprimand both. Punishments are handed down for sloppy worksmanship as well as for intentional comments.

MITCH BLATT

After scoring 89 points in his first 3 games, the New York Knicks Jeremy Lin has created “Linsanity” online not only in America, but also in China. Since the NBA’s Chinese micro-blog account posted a status update yesterday highlighting Lin’s record-setting start, it has been forwarded over 16,000 times. Although Lin is not a Chinese-nation, Chinese citizens take much pride in his Chinese ethnicity, a fact that David Stern is certainly smiling about now that Yao Ming retired. Lin’s Weibo (China’s Twitter) account has 800,000 followers.

Although Asian countries have produced NBA stars before–most notably Yao and Yi Jianli–they have been more noted for their height than their athleticism. Lin breaks that stereotype, as quite a few netizens in both America and China have pointed out.

Yao Ming could put up 19 points per game and 9 rebounds throughout his career, but Americans don’t idolize the 7′ 5″ center. When Yao had the ball in the open court, he wasn’t exactly know for his speed or athleticism.

Keith Chow, a writer and San Francisco Chronicle contributor said in a discussion on sports and race,

It infuriates me whenever I hear criticism of Yao as being “robotic”. I get what analysts are trying to say, but to me, it’s code for “Asians aren’t athletic”.

– Transcript from Original Spin blog

Chow elaborated that, “The assumption of that on the part of coaches or recruiters that Asians are by nature incapable of improvising holds us back.”

Lin received no scholarship offers for college, then made the All-Ivy League Team twice (for whatever that’s worth) and went undrafted. Not being a basketball scout myself, I don’t know whether Lin looked good enough to justify receiving scholarship offers or being drafted highly, but clearly, if he keeps this up, the scouts missed something. Other journalists have certainly pointed to race as a potential factor that kept him overlooked.

This 2009 Time article points to recruiter bias as a potential factor. It also notes Lin typically faced racial slurs in college like “sweet and sour pork,” “Open your eyes!”, and at least one player calling him a “ch*nk.”

The viewpoint about Asians and their perceived athleticism isn’t lost on Chinese netizens themselves. It’s a big part of the conversation, i.e. this discussion at the popular forum Tianya.

Why didn’t he get a chance to play before?
——
There are some unwritten rules. NBA teams first consider whether you can compete aggressively. If you can compete, then you have a chance on offense or defense. The yellow race’s physical character is straight-up viewed as inferior in many people’s minds, so because Lin is Asian, although he was a star in college, they do not believe he can play at the highest level.

– Tianya discussion

Now Chinese netizens are taking pride in his athleticism breaking stereotypes:

Shows that one’s physical quality and one’s race has no relation… Hoping to see the NBA’s first yellow [Asian] superstar.

Not bad, proves that yellow people are also capable [in basketball].

– ChinaSmack

A few commentors said it was a pity he wasn’t a Chinese citizen, and one said, “It couldn’t be the NBA intentionally creating a star, could it…? To attract/capture the Chinese market?”

Jeremy Lin’s emergence runs deeper than just sports, though. That Lin has been heckled with racial stereotypes like “Orchestra is on the other side of campus,” speaks to the discrimination Asians and Asian-Americans face being perceived as nerdy and weak. According to a recent study, students of Asian descent are by far the most likely to be bullied in the classroom (54% for Asian-Americans to 38% for African Americans).

Due to Asian parenting styles, Asian-Americans are typically high-achievers in school and respectful of rules and authority, an attitude stemming from Confucianism.

As Moye at 8Asians notes,

More importantly, our parenting styles are different and occasionally, hold our children back. I speak for myself when I say that Japanese parents are stricter than most non-Asian families. If I ever told my parents about being treated badly in school, they would tell me to grin and bear it.

– 8Asians

Ying Ma wrote the book Chinese Girl in the Ghetto in 2011, in which she recalled growing up in Oakland and having to deal with racism and violent crime targeted against her based on a perception that Asians won’t fight back:

When non-criminal, racist behavior takes place in the ghetto frequently, without anyone batting an eye, one must ask: at what point does this non-criminal racism motivate a racist crime? In my book, I talk about getting into a fight with a Mexican girl in junior high school. I’m sure she wasn’t planning to get into a fight with a nerdy Asian girl like me; she was just being a racist and expected me to put up with it like every other Asian girl at our school. When I did not, violence ensued. So the question is: if you’re a teenager and you grow up in an environment where it’s okay to discriminate against Asian people, are you really going to think twice about punching a “Chinaman” for no reason? Probably not.

– Ying Ma Interview
(Related: A video of a 7-on-1 hate crime spread virally on YouTube in January.)

It would seem these kind of attitudes spread to the basketball court and mark Asians and Asian-Americans as “uncompetetive.” Hopefully “Brother Lin” can make these attitudes change, but, as Fung Brothers Comedy illustrates, a reversal in the opposite direction can also have negative consequences:

Watch Duke game-winning three point shot at Juiced Sports:

DAVID MEHRWEIN

David Mehrwein is a Yahoo! Sports contributor and the co-founder of WrapUpp, a West Coast sports blog. He is a guest blogger for Juiced Sports.

With the Super Bowl officially marking the end of the NFL season, the next event to look forward to is the NFL Draft in April. While many players have been touted as high draft picks, there are some players who won’t live up to their potential. We see it in nearly every draft. There are those who are ready to come into the NFL and produce and those who aren’t. So let’s take a look at the top college prospects who are NFL ready:

5. Michael Egnew, TE, Missouri
Michael Egnew is a sleeper. He is not projected to go until the late third or early fourth round despite being tagged as one of the best tight ends in the entire draft. His 6’6’’ 235 lb. frame means a big target for NFL quarterbacks. He has good hands as he reeled in 90 passes for over 750 yards in 2010; even though his numbers dipped in 2011 with only 50 catches for 523 yards. He is part of a new breed of tight end that has emerged; the oversized wide receiver. His blocking may be his weakness at present, but his size and speed will have most safeties and linebackers feeling frustrated while trying to cover him.

4. Jonathan Martin, OL, Stanford
Jonathan Martin spent most of the 2011 season taking care of projected No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck. Martin is projected as an early to mid-first round pick; with many analysts have him going in the top 10 of the draft. He has good footwork and blocks well on both passing and running plays. Those types of offensive lineman are often regarded as high value lineman and the 6’6’’ 305 lb. lineman has the ability to be a rookie sensation – while excelling in his NFL career.

3. Quinton Coples, DE, North Carolina
Quinton Coples had a nice year for the North Carolina Tar Heels and impressed many at the 2012 Senior Bowl. While his frame is intimidating at 6’6’’ 272 lbs. it is his speed that will terrify opposing linemen. His footwork and ability to create leverage makes him attractive to teams that employ a 3-4 defense. His role would be similar to that of Aldon Smith of the San Francisco 49ers. However, his size will also make him a formidable run defender. He is projected as a top 10 pick in the draft and will make an immediate impact.

2. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
Andrew Luck has been slated as the “next Peyton Manning” ever since the Colts have earned the dubious honor of having the first pick in the NFL Draft. While the Colts have not directly said they will choose him No. 1, it looks as if to most he is the concensus No. 1 overall pick. He broke records at Stanford set by the great John Elway and has the advantage of having played in a pro-style offense at Stanford. His 6’4’’ 235 lb. frame gives him NFL size and his arm has the strength to compete in the NFL. Depending upon Peyton Manning’s health, Luck should make a big splash at the pro level with his skillset.

1. Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State
Justin Blackmon has to be one of the most impressive wide receivers since 2007 when Calvin Johnson came out of Georgia Tech. While size-wise he does not compare to Johnson – who is four inches taller – his ability to reel in catches has to be on par. Blackmon is a physical receiver who has the speed and strength to make it as a big time NFL receiver. Whatever team drafts the 6’1’’ 215 lb. receiver is going to get a player who will instantly be a nice target for his quarterback.