THE FAME IS 'LINSTANTANEOUS' - FOR Just A Minute Radio on Tuesday 120221

Hello… sorry to be late with this posting. Can’t figure out just why, except to blame it on the New York Gremlns.

 

I think that’s the errant group who sabotage my efforts when I’m in a hurry. I thought I had stamped them out… but here’s a comeback.

 

Anyway the ‘punsters’ have taken over the sports pages of the New York papers etc. with their new Knickerbocker  Star – His name is Jeremy Lin. He’s a Harvard grad who played for them and was kind of tossed around in making his bid for the pros. I’m not a close fan of Ivy League “Pro” ball.  Geographically it’s a bit distant from South Carolina and the BIG game down here is football.  Even in the Pro-football… SC gets shortchanged… closest team to the north is the Panthers who do manage to train some in Spartanburg at the Wofford campus… but it’s the Charlotte team that carries the pro weight in these parts. Next you have to go to Atlanta or further south.  Like I say my knowledge there is very sketchy.

 

But Jeremy Lin got plucked from the lower ranks to join the NY Knicks a couple of weeks back and has set the publicity for that franchise on the high burner.

 

I’m fuzzy on some details because the coverage isn’t great down here… and I’m usually (or at least presently) having to concentrate on politics. But I did work up a piece that I’m having to resurrect out of memory about this sudden blossoming of a “D” level player who was moved up to the Knicks first level and within a few games in a couple of weeks has hit the cover of Sports Illustrated and become the staple on the ‘punster’ circuit. He even made the first string of Saturday Night Live – which I don’t follow much either. He was the subject of a recent SNL opening parody …. And apparently is boosting everyone’s ratings.

 

The interesting thing to me – which hardly gets covered – is he has managed to get a Christian testimony in between all the basketball talk – and he seems to be the genuine article. I guess that’s why the local ‘Gremlins’ ate the earlier piece I wrote.

 

OK…so much for my bellyaching… these oddball things happen to my postings from time to time… and so far I’ve not discovered a cure. But I do appreciate the cheerfulness and humility I’ve observed in the interviews that have built him up recently – and I think the whole basketball world was shocked by the headline one of the NY papers pasted on him.  His heritage is Chinese – he looks very handsome – but some headline writer (and I’ll let the paper go unnamed because I don’t want to spread the stupidity to their publicity advantage) utilized the somewhat derogatory term “Chink” in their bold type.

 

It’s embarrassing to the sport. It’s such bad taste the paper revised the headline within hours because of the complaints and papered it over … but I’ve not discovered an apology yet. Yeah… I’m fully aware we all make mistakes – but we also apologize when we do. Often it can’t be rewound… but they at least ought to get a publicity ‘knock on their block’ for having let it escape into the print world…

 

However I’m sure in the end it will boost Mr. Lin’s visibility (as it has for Tim Teabow) and I trust it’ll be wiped off the slate ASAP.  The headline was in poor taste – it can’t be justified in any reasonable way – it’s one of those public ‘stinkbombs’ becoming more frequent in public media. So on the nameless headline writer’s behalf as a minor player myself in the publicity arena – I’ll issue my own apology on the ‘thoughtful’ sports media’s behalf and say it’s over and we are expecting it to be expunged from the public record to be abandoned forever.

 

Go right ahead Jeremy and shoot those amazing shots and let us share in your proficiency in the sports world. You’re welcome among the ‘thinking’ fans.

 

Cordially, IN HIM

 

Jack Buttram

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“JUST A MINUTE”

THE FAME IS ‘LINSTANTANEOUS’

          Just a Minute: Punsters are suddenly ‘Linundated’ in New York when a new American basketball star is born almost overnight.  You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t gotten the sports news of  Jeremy Lin.  Harvard graduate who has suddenly taken over a slot on New York Knicks basketball squad and become a welcome ticket-office salvation for the struggling pro team.

          I played basketball in high school – but it was a far different contest from the sport that bears its name today. A recent movie called “Moneyball” more accurately describes the primary engine of today’s professional hoopsters. It’s far more a business than a game.

          I’m at a drastic disadvantage trying to communicate what has happened in the last two weeks as this Chinese-American-Taiwan third-string player suddenly burst upon the pro-basketball scene with asset of skills that’s set the pro-league on its ear. You’ll be reading and hearing a lot more about him as he gives definite and strong evidence of being an attractive and sincere Christian sports star.

 

Jebco Editorial Service

www.wmuu.com

E-mail n4zhk@arrl.net

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