Incredible Stories of 2 Asian NBA Players

In all honesty, with the help of racism, Asain people are not and were never known as the most athletic or superstar players in the NBA. In the league, there are 0.2% of Asians. As an Asian my self, I am appalled. This also applies to all professional sports as well. Asain people are more recognized as intelligent beings coming from the hardest college, most likely to become a doctor. That is the harsh reality for Asians. However, there are 2 specific Asain NBA players that have proved society wrong, showing that they are worth it in the league. Each has played in different eras if the NBA, one of them being the Hall of Famer Yao Ming. The second one is currently in the league, but not as great as he once was in his glory days, Jeremy Lin. Each of them has a fascinating story and they both have represented Asians in the NBA for a very long time.

Yao Ming

Jeremey Lin

Starting off with Jeremy Lin's story. Jeremy has fought through the cultural biases throughout his basketball career. This has caused him to struggle to prove himself worthy on the court, even in college (Harvard). He was overlooked because he was Asian. It made no sense how he was not given a fair chance considering the fact that he carried his High School, Palo Alto into a 31-1 record, bringing them into the state finals, going up against Mater Dei. It was there when he brought the team to victory. Jeremey then became a NorCal Division II player of the year. Despite all this, he was still not offered a scholarship by any Division 1 college. He was given the opportunity to play for Harvard. There he showed off his talent, with a notable performance of 30 points against the Uconn Huskies, where future all-star Kemba Walker played.

Palo Alta vs Mater Dei (2006)

         Lin at Harvard University

After college, he came into the NBA summer league undrafted, eventually receiving a contract from the Golden State Warriors. This made him the first Chinese-American player to ever make it to the NBA. He was then sent into the D-League because he appeared overmatched. His career in the NBA got off to a rocky start. After given the 2nd Chance he was then cut from the Houston Rockets. This was the worst fit for him because as a point guard, he was on a team with 6 point guard already. Finally, the New York Knicks saw potential in him, so they picked him. New York is where the turning point in  Lin's career occurred. He reached an era in his career, which people liked to call, Linsanity. He started off in New York as a bench warmer, only playing when the stars got hurt. One game, when the Knicks faced off against the New Jersey Nets, he was given possibly his last chance to show that he deserves way more recognition and proving cultural biases wrong. With a do or die attitude, he went all out. Finally, he showed to the world that Asians have also got what it takes as well. He remembers crying in the shower afterward. Thus, his Linsanity phase was born as he continued to go off. He continued to go through hate and discrimination, but he also continued to show he could not be stopped as well.

This next story is what I find to be the most interesting one. This next one is about Chinese Hall of Famer, Yao Ming. The basis of this story is his height, standing at 7'6, he was always well-known for his insane height in the league. The truth is, he probably was not supposed to be this tall or this talented. In the 1950's, the Chinese government wanted to be great and powerful in all of the sports.





They craved dominance in all of the sports, and one of their strengths and notable sports happened to be basketball. Their needs of dominance may not have been so forgiving and nice. That is because they did not fool around. They kept the mentality that they must do absolutely whatever it takes to be dominant, no matter how unforgiving. They took their strategies to the extreme as they scouted the nation for young children that had any potential. They would then force any liked child to leave their home and dedicate their life to the sport that China chose for them. This is already beyond messed up\. Even after Chinese athletes' professional careers were over, they were still forced to dedicate their lives to the sport and get their marriages approved by the government, in order to produce babies who would then be able to play a sport and so on. Moving on to Yao Ming himself. He was born as a very big baby. Right away China so the potential in him due to his height. They followed his childhood every step. Right away, he was of course forced to dedicate his life to basketball. He and his parents did not want this, as his parents wanted him to go to school full time and Yao wanted to be an archeologist when he grew up. Sadly China does give a damn. When players for a sport were gathered, they were put through hell during training and practices. They were tortured and to keep going until they could not breathe. Practices practically lasted the whole day. Players would often collapse on the floor. Players would often get beaten up when they make mistakes and even if a player is sick, they did not care. This created Yao into a superior basketball player despite hating the sport.



He continued to grow and develop as an athlete. China wanted Yao to grow even taller so they made drinks for him to take. Yao was put through basketball hell throughout his entire life. Thus, I believe that China created Yao Ming.

These stories are quite fascinating in their own way and definitely put Asian players up there, whether from struggles with biases to the Chinese government.

The Los Angeles Clippers are a disgrace to the NBA!

Clippers' trash cans...... because they're TRASH

The NBA pre-season begins in 2 weeks. We will finally get to see how each team with their new additions play out. This does not mean I will focus and anticipate on the upcoming season. In reality, there are many other things basketball related that I can talk about on this blog, with or without the current season. This week, I wanted to embrace how bad my favorite team is, so that is what I will be talking about. Many NBA fanatics, including me, believe that the Los Angeles Clippers are indeed cursed. They are not only the most cursed team in the NBA, there may be the most cursed team in all of the professional sports, never winning even one championship title.

For many years, the Clippers have been the laughing stock of this league. From missing opportunities on star players to being the only team that has never made it past the 2nd round of the playoffs, the Clippers are cursed. Let's take this back to the early history of the team, even before the Clippers were in Los Angeles. This is the era where the franchise has traded away future stars they have had and also have missed out on many opportunities at drafting all-star players. When the Clippers were in New York, Buffalo, the team had a future all-star player at the time, Moses Malone. The Clippers missed a big one here, by not giving Malone a lot of playing time. As a result, Moses requested to get traded off the team,. Afterward, he began to shine on Rockets. From then on after leaving the Clippers, he would soon become a 3x MVP. Later on, the Clippers traded the face of their team, Bob Mcadoo, who has already won an MVP. After being traded, he was an overall 5x All-Star and a future Hall of Famer. They gave up 2 big names and ended up receiving bum players in return. Throughout many years, they would go on to trading away 3 Hall of Famers and missed out on drafting 1 Hall of Famer. They would continue to miss out on star players, like when they traded away Hall of Famer, Bill Walton. In the recent years or modern era of the NBA, the Clippers franchise is not any different. This is the time period where the team began to blow winning opportunities. In 2014, the Clippers made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, the most they have ever made it to. They were up against the Oklahoma City Thunder. In game 5, they had a chance to take the lead in the series, making it 3-2, only needing one more win to advance after that. In the game, the Clippers were ahead by 7 in the final minutes, but of course, they blew the lead, allowing the Thunder to take control and later on win the series. In 2015, the Clippers once again were in the 2nd round, after defeating the Spurs in the first. They were put up against the Houston Rockets. In this series, the Clippers were actually ahead, 3-1, only needing one more win the advance. But the Clippers somehow found a way to give up the lead, allowing the Houston Rockets to a make an amazing comeback. I was personally devastated while watching that happen. The team was so close to advancing to the Conference Final for the first time in history. The team has a long and bad history of giving up great oppurtunites. Everything happens for a resason, but at this point i dont even know what is going. However I still stay as a loyal fan to the team and I have faith that one day, the glory will be ours. GO CLIPPERS!

The Virtual NBA (My experience with the release)

As the NBA pre-season is just around the corner, beginning in about 3 weeks, and as the offseason trade drama is coming to a close, there is obviously nothing much with the NBA I can talk about right now.......or is there? There may be nothing in the real NBA world that I am interested in as of right now, but this week, the 20th video game in the NBA 2k franchise has released, specifically the 20th Anniversary edition. The Standard Edition comes out 4 days after. The NBA 2k Franchise consists of a series of basketball video games that release every year, basically simulating the NBA in a video game with a variety of game modes. The series kicked off back in 1999 with "NBA 2k".

First NBA 2K game (1999)

From then on, the franchise continued to grow.  Many NBA fans and fans of the franchise have anticipated this year's special edition mainly because it is the 20th Anniversary of the franchise.

20th Anniversary Edition

Many fans, including most of my friends, have pre-ordered this copy of the game, however, this leaves me feeling left out because I didn't pre-order this version. For a few weeks, I have been contemplating whether I should get the 20th Anniversary Edition, which costs $100, or the standard edition, which costs $60.

Standard Edition

These NBA 2K games release every year, similar to how there's a new NBA season every year.  Throughout the recent years, I have never had a hard time deciding which edition to order, because I always picked up the standard edition along with all my friends because we don't want to spend $100 on a game that may not even be worth the price. I would always pre-order the game around a month or 2, prior to the early release date for a pre-ordered copy. However, this year was a more stressful decision to make. Almost everyone I know ordered the 20th Anniversary Edition, except for me. So I ended up frustrated and confused about which edition I should pre-order last minute. I have never pre-ordered an NBA 2K game so late in my life. This decision left me with so much stress. It came down to one of those situations where there are good pros and cons for each choice. If I got the 20th Anniversary Edition, I would receive a ton of more content to enjoy, including physical content as well. All of the best content was exclusive to the special edition. Another good part about picking this version is the fact that I would get to play the game 4 days earlier. Usually, if you pre-order the game in general, even the standard edition, you get to pick the game up 4 days earlier. However this year, only the special edition is available 4 days prior to the initial release date. This is something I don't get at all. I feel like it would be a much easier decision for me if the standard editions released early as well because I am also a very impatient person when it comes to situations like these. If I get the standard edition, then I save $40 and I can say that I was wise with my money. That's pretty much it, but money is a big deal. When they say the struggle is real, they mean it. I had better things to be stressed about, such as my presentation that I had to practice for. Although there are differences between the 2 versions, it is still the same game at the same time, which makes me feel a whole lot better. On the final day that both games were available to pre-order, I finally went to GameStop, still making 2nd thoughts, but most likely getting the standard edition. I walk up to the register, wondering if the 20th Anniversary Edition was still available to order (it was the night of the Special edition pick up), the worker said they were all sold out of the special edition copies, reminding me that I have never ordered a 2K game this late in my life. It did make me feel a bit better as well, knowing there was no other choice I had afterward then just pick up the standard edition, which will be available for pickup 4 days later. So I ordered the standard edition, and I was finally all set. Regardless of the confusion, I am still very excited to pick up the new NBA 2K game this Tuesday. Personally, I think it is very convenient for the NBA 2K game to release every year, a few weeks before the actual NBA season starts. It keeps impatient people like me, calm and not dying for the NBA season to start as much. It keeps me occupied. I hope my experience with this year's NBA 2K game is a great one, just like every year.

A Very Interesting Off-Season.....

Congratulations, looks like you made it to my first NBA blog post! As the NBA season has not started yet (preseason begins in early October), there are still many interesting things that happens and has happened around the league.  This time period where the season isn't currently

on is called the "off-season". 

A lot of interesting trades occurred during this off-season, some I found interesting, however a few others I didn't understand why. The end of last season was very unsatisfying, seeing the Golden State Warriors sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0 in the finals. Right after that boring series, I was really hoping for good trades to occur, where a team gets formed to at least put up a challenge against the stacked Warriors. When it comes to my favorite team, that being the Los Angeles Clippers, it is pretty depressing here. The Clippers have lost a majority of their star players, trading Deandre Jordan most recently. At this point we practically have nobody. This off-season, I did not even think about them making or getting anything out of a trade in order to contend in the playoffs. However, this off-season had some interesting trades. Lebron James had signed to join the Los Angeles Lakers, who will probably become the better LA team once again. Another really interesting trade was the San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard heading to the Toronto Raptors as the Raptor's Demar DeRozan heads to the Spurs. There were many other fascinating, like Carmelo Anthony going to the Houston Rockets, Isiah Thomas heading to the Denver Nuggets, and several other big trades. However, there was one trade in particular that I did not understand at all. That is, of course, a trade involving the Warriors, an already stacked team, getting another all-star player once again. 

A Monkey

Early in July, Demarcus Cousins signed with the Warriors in free-agency. This move basically completes an All-star lineup, practically making them nearlyQuestions, Comments, Free V-Bucks? impossible to beat. I honestly think this was a bad move on Cousins and one that probably has every other NBA fan clenching their fist. He has probably ruined the league for the next few years. If we already have an idea of who will win the championship every year, we won't see the point in watching. With this trade, the Western Conference is also very stacked and overpowered. Although I am still excited to see how everything turns out in this 2018-19 NBA season, I am still already aware of who will win, as well as everyone else.