I know that there are plenty of articles talking about the meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin, and I vowed that I would not join that train, yet here I am. I heard this morning, once again, a comparison of Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow, and I have a tremendously difficult time making sense of it. Don't get me wrong, I think both are amazing stories, tremendous athletes, wonderful advocates of the Christian faith for their respective sports, and both are exceeding expectations, but think about this:
Jeremy Lin was offered "spots" on teams out of high school. Stanford, UCLA, and Cal offered positions on their teams, which is commonly referred to as a "preferred walk on," and Harvard and Brown offered him a position as well. Ivy League teams don't offer athletic scholarships.
Tim Tebow had to decide between every school in the country. He reportedly had scholarship offers from every major school in the SEC (Florida, Alabama, LSU) and was considered the top quarterback recruit in the nation.
Jeremy Lin didn't make any splashes until his sophomore year, when he made 2nd Team All-Ivy League. His junior year he was the only NCAA DI player in the top ten in their league in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocked shots, field goal, free throw, and three-point percentage, but no one considered him a future NBA star. When he repeated the feat his senior year, no NBA franchise salivated over it. He was the first player in Ivy League history to finish with over 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists, and 200 steals. He went undrafted.
Tim Tebow saw limited time as a freshman as well (hey there's a similarity), but did end up with the second-most rushing yards for Florida. He had some key touchdowns in key games (in the National Championship against Ohio State for instance), but people still questioned about him being named starter in 2007. He then went on to win the Heisman Trophy and Davey O'Brien Award (best QB) as a sophomore, broke the school rushing TD record (previously held by Emmitt Smith), won a second national championship and the Maxwell Award as a junior, and then iced the cake with his record breaking 51st rushing touchdown (previously held by Georgia's Hershel Walker) as a senior. Oh let's not forget to mention he had 5 NCAA, 14 SEC and 28 Florida Gator statistical records by the time he graduated as well. "Experts" questioned his draft stock, and he was taken 25th overall by the Denver Broncos.
Jeremy Lin decided to sign with his hometown Golden State Warriors, who notoriously cut Lin to make room for a player (DeAndre Jordan) that never came. He made the opening day roster for the 2010-11 season and was placed on the inactive list. He didn't get much playing time because Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis are the stars, and honestly, who would you rather have had the ball? Lin made his NBA debut on "Asian Heritage Night" for the Warriors (seriously) against the Los Angeles Clippers. Lin got the 12th man treatment that you see at a lot of high schools: at the end of a game where the outcome was decided, fans started chanting for Lin to enter the game. He was then released, signed by Houston, and released again. He was signed by a guard-depleted Knicks team, bounced around between them and the D-League, and then Baron Davis suffered another injury setback, forcing the Knicks to play this little-known Ivy Leaguer. He's now scored 146 points and dished out 57 assists in six starts, and "has a role in All-Star Weekend," whatever that means.
Tim Tebow DID have a rough start to his career. I'm not going to try and paint the picture that he had his road paved for him by all his aforementioned success. He was a backup for the majority of his rookie season, but did see some marginal success. He was named the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week twice, threw for 654 yards, five touchdowns, three interceptions, and also rushed for 227 yards and six touchdowns. Tebow was being criticized from all sorts of media personalities, from former players and coaches, to so-called "experts," to writers (PTI and Around the Horn guys/gals). Everyone had something to say about Tebow. John Fox named him the starter against the Miami Dolphins after the Broncos started the season 1-5, and the legend was born.
Another point that was brought to my attention by Dan Patrick yesterday is that this doesn't happen in the NBA. The NFL just had a tremendous story with Arian Foster that is a more rags-to-riches story than Tebow, and in baseball you have it all the time thanks to the high population of Latin American players. The NBA doesn't have surprises like that. Sure, there are players who grew up with nothing and found their passion and way out in basketball, but those players are top recruits and draft picks once high school hits.
Oh yeah, and this just came to mind:
Jeremy Lin earns $800,000
Tim Tebow earns a base salary of $11.25 million, and can make as much $33 million through performance-based incentives.
Both men have faced adversity to get to the point that they are at now. People are still questioning whether Tebow can start in the NFL, and no one thinks Jeremy Lin can be good once Carmelo Anthony returns to the Knicks. There stories have similarities, but Jeremy Lin-like stories don't come along often. Let's all just sit back and enjoy it.
