Linball

I understand there's a huge difference between public life and private and there are things you might say to your friends you would never write in a column, but I'm really not going to get too worked up about Whitlock's joke. In fact, I admit, I laughed.

I've made almost the exact same joke about my Irish cousin to his face. Again, yes, I clearly understand the difference, but at the same time, it was a friggin' dick joke. I'm sure a caveman once held up a twig, pointed at it and then pointed at another caveman's groin and got a hearty laugh from another cavemen about it. Guys make fun each other's penis size. It's what we do.

I thought the "Yellow Mamba" sign they showed on TV was much more offensive.

 

Whitlock should now excuse himself from commenting on race again, ever.

 

But what else would he write about?

 

He proved he could get away with anything and not be reprimanded, all those years ago at Foxboro.

 

BTW, I really want to buy a Lin jersey. I figure three things can happen from here on out: 1) He becomes a decent Knick, spends 10 years with the team and is a solid NBA player, if not especially noteworthy outside of the initial burst. B) He becomes a Hall of Famer in the mold of Steve Nash, dishing, scoring and generally running a prolific offense (one that probably won't win an NBA Championship because, well, D'Antoni is at the helm). or D) He flames out in spectacular fashion and 20 years from now, owning a Lin jersey from his big season is like owning a Fidrych jersey. Retro awesome.

 

My God, that was a *real* tweet? I had hoped someone had faked it under Whitlock's name.

I don't know who he's working for, but IMO there should be some kind of reprimand for that. There's just no excuse. Some drunken fan, OK. But a journalist? That's beyond unprofessional.

 

I read a few pages of this thread, but I think the underlying theme of this has to be the NBA Lockout. Stern and Co. HAVE to be eating this up like Whitlock devoured KC BBQ. All the negative publicity from everything that happened still kind of hovering, and you've got this feel-good story that emerges within a few months to get everyone buzzing about something else.

On a business level, I can only imagine even if he sustains the flash in the pan status for long enough, jersey sales will be very nice for Mr. Lin.

 

The sloppy list organization in this post has me wanting to go Louise Woodward on your Matthew Eappen ass.

Anyway, I think it would be pretty hard to imagine Lin just flaming out entirely. Baseball has cases such as Mark Fidrych because arm injuries are so prevalent among pitchers and because junkballing only takes you so far. This kid is posting extraordinary numbers. I recently read that his 109 points in his first four starts are the most since the ABA merger. I know most stars start immediately, and he's at an advantage in this regard having roughly 40 games in two seasons after four years of college before he finally started, but that's still an amazing statistic. He outscored Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and many other great rookies in the process.

 

You can put it with your Kevin Maas jersey

 

If a comedian on HBO, or a satellite radio show, or podacast says that lame Whitlock joke, it doesn't even create a ripple.

Since its written by a supposed sportswriter, on Twitter, it creates a furor.

I don't get it.

 

Jounrnalists are held to a different standard than comedians?

 

Mindlessly typing stupid shit onto social media ain't journalism.