Basketball?

Something a little different this week. I actually went to an amazing writing conference last week, and I was planning to blog about that this week, but then this showed up in my feed and derailed my brain.

Lin-sanity!

Don’t worry, I’ll talk about the writing seminar next time.

But in case your sports bone is even less functional than mine, Jeremy Lin is the first Taiwanese-American to play in the NBA and he had an amazing run of games in the 2012 season where he became the center of a cultural phenomenon. As I said, my sports acumen is less than stellar, and while I knew something was happening in the NBA, I wasn’t paying close attention in the moment. Maybe because I wasn’t big on watching basketball, and also because I live on the west coast, and Lin played for the New York Knicks. Nothing against the Knicks, but I tend to gravitate to California teams when I do watch sports.

Anyway, 38 at the Garden, a short documentary about Jeremy Lin’s rise to prominence, was mentioned on my Twitter feed and I went and found it on HBO Max.

Seriously. I watched it twice in one day.

On the surface, it’s a thrilling basketball Cinderella story with sizzling highlights. We get Jeremy’s story from high school phenom in northern California to his struggles and eventual success in the NBA.

But it’s also a story of a son of Asian-American immigrants, which resonated intensely with me, and spoke to a lot of my experience of growing up in ways that I hadn’t been able to accurately verbalize before this. Yeah, like I said, it hit me hard enough to watch it twice. If you’ve got a free 38 minutes some time, this is a great use of your time.

And then if you want more, there’s a great interview with the director, Frank Chi, on the They Call Us Bruce podcast. Click here for the podcast.

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