Doble: Lin and Linn

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

JEREMY Lin, that new sensation from New York Knicks in the NBA, has started a word war between Taiwan and China. The Chinese from the mainland claimed that his maternal grandmother hailed from that place.

An uncle insists that Lin is Taiwanese and many of his relatives live in Taipei. Look how instant success can make people react differently. We are hoping that this dispute will not lead to another war between Chiang Kai Shek’s and Mao Tse Tung’s descendants.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Despite the wave of calls for Lin to join the Chinese basketball team to the London Olympics, the Knicks guard would rather stay where he is and let go where destiny leads him.

If not for Byron Davis’s injury, Jeremy should still be watching and warming his butt at Coach D’ Antoni’s bench. But life is full of surprises and, without your knowing it, you will wake up one day a hero.

Lin is just an example. Harvard, after all, is famous for producing future US senators and presidents. And the way he performed in his last games, he just proved what the famous and (sometimes infamous) Coach Bobby Knight adage: that basketball’s ratio is 4:1 - the former mental and the latter physical.

If Lin is from Harvard, the other Linn is from USLS. What do they have in common? Both are basketball players and earned their degrees through athletic scholarship.

So what’s so special about the son of Lourdes Tingson Moles? Except for being a member of the Philippine team which placed second in the Nike 3-on-3 basketball behind Pusan in an international event in Seoul, South Korea in 1996, there’s none.

Linn’s USLS coach Sammy Belangel now works with BACIWA. His teammate Raymond Concha is managing the restaurant he inherited from his mom. Chitboy Benedicto is a Med Rep and married to a doctor.

Carlo, the son of Ed Camus of PBA vintage Toyota, is also a successful salesman in Manila.

All of them graduated from La Salle on scholarships through Bro. Rolly Dizon who was present at SM Mega Mall when the boys from Bacolod bested Jake Rojas’ University of Cebu in the Nike national 3-on-3 finals.

The victory made USLS a recipient of weight training equipment in exchange for the champions’ supposed side trip to Japan to meet Michael Jordan before the Nike International game in SK.

Linn is celebrating his 32nd birthday on February 21 in Doha away from his family and friends back home. This article is written to remember him by and dedicated to all basketball players who stayed in school and continue to dream of achieving success through the sport.

Lin and Linn are world apart.

Lin is now famous around the earth while Linn is known by friends and relatives.

But who cares? Each is a success unto himself and that’s what counts most.

Who says basketball players and athletes are dumb?