Maggie's Farm

Although a devoted sports fan, I haven't been following this story. The only sour comment I've noticed was a put-down of Lin that came from a black NBA player, who seemed to be upset that Lin was getting the kind of victimhood sympathy from people that blacks use to their advantage. Maybe the NBA needs an affirmative action program for whites, Asians, and especially Ivy League graduates, along with sensitivity training for those of its players who feel threatened by racial and educational diversity. The last prominent NBA player with a bona fide college education from the Ivy League that I can recall was Bill Bradley, a Princeton graduate who played for the Knicks and retired in 1976 as an NBA Hall of Famer. The way I see it, Lin is helping to break down the NBA's education barrier as well as its racial barrier. With more Harvard graduates like Lin on the court, I'd expect to see less thuggery and grandstanding by players. By any measure, today's NBA players are highly talented and enormously gifted physically, but too many of them lack the good manners and the grace that goes along with good sportsmanship. The NBA needs more self-effacing players, who work on their BB skills instead of their show-off routines.