JEREMY LIN AND THE RANK OF UNDERDOG

The latest underdog craze is the New York Knick’s Jeremy Lin who’s been lightin’ up scoreboards and testing his mettle against NBA elite just one season after being cut by the Golden State Warriors. But it’s easy to root for a guy who has nothing to lose isn’t it? If he doesn’t succeed, no one really expected him to and if he drops 27 points and 11 assists or breaks cultural barriers or does the unimaginable in his first five starts, then it’s bonus material. That’s what we say but we only root for underdogs because they are the embodiment of ordinary people right?

We produce mythological type images of a unsuspecting hero who defies the odds that daily trample us all underfoot. We love the story too. But there’s something wrong with loving the story of the underdog too much. Have you ever told anyone the unadulterated version of the darkest time in your life? If you have, you know that the listener has trouble with that part of the story. But I think we manage to bedazzle the path the underdog took and focus solely on the current position of a Jeremy Lin. Nevertheless, no matter how romanticized,  Lin’s road to the NBA has surely been grueling on some mental, emotional and physical levels. It had to be or else he wouldn’t be the first American-born Taiwanese-Chinese man to ever play in the league.

I wonder if people see themselves in the unsettling portions of the story not featured on radio clips and ESPN Top 10 Plays. I remember Mike Tyson’s story of being on the streets, orphaned at 16 and arrested 38 times by the time he was 13-years old. He was a magnet of illegality and brutality until his mentor Cus D’Amato got hold of him. And even when Tyson became the youngest heavy-weight boxing champion ever, he was haunted by a horrifying past that would eventually be his virtual undoing.

The point is, whenever you root for the underdog, if you see yourself in him, it should bring you to a place of reckoning. To be a “dark horse” is to step to the crossroads with strange confidence. The crossroads is in what you will choose to pursue, to attempt, to endeavor. So many times in life we find ourselves undrafted (unwanted), cut (disposed of), in jeopardy of being released (fired/laid off). This is usually the back story of a long shot. It is also why, the journey is more important than the destination. Underdogs attempt the incredible. Most of us don’t.

The dark horse must earn his/her title. If we won’t blaze a trail, we aren’t fit to be called underdogs. We have a way of admiring from a safe distance instead of choosing to replicate character. And we do this because it’s easier than becoming like the underdog in his/her submission to pain, rejection and potential demise. We have a euphemism for not risking failure and it’s called “realism.” We leave the significant acts of humanity to the caste of heroes and heroines while we sip diet coke. But who are the underdogs of history except Goliath’s David (a shepherd), Shirley Chisholm (a female immigrant with Carribean roots), Mohandas K. Gandhi (an East Indian), Martin Luther King Jr. (an unassuming pastor), etc. Were they realists? If we see ourselves in Jeremy Lin, it must mean we are willing to prepare for and attempt something big. Otherwise, we have nothing in common with him. Lin is just another guy who figures he’ll take as much as his God, his skills and his situation will afford him.