Jeremy Lin, The Shepherd

One of the greatest basketball stories of all time was that of Jeremy Lin. A true underdog story, Jeremy Lin's rise to fame and success created one of the biggest buzzes in social media. Lin was a Palo Alto High School graduate, a Harvard University graduate, and then an undrafted player in the NBA before he found his home in New York. But why does America, and the world for that matter, care about just one of the hundreds of underdog stories that is found in Jeremy Lin?

Jeremy Lin is Asian-American.

As simple as it sounds, it is the best reason someone could give. Asian-American. Two words that generalize the "Why do we care about Jeremy Lin?" concept. Many people would probably say something like "But there are tons of famous Asian-Americans! Like that tall guy Yao Ming and Jackie Chan and uhhh....". No, Yao Ming and Jackie Chan are not Asian-American. They are both fully Chinese who immigrated to the United States.

To an average person, Asian-American and Asian both seem like the same thing, but they could not be any more different. I myself an Asian-American, do not feel the same ties to my origins, South Korea, that a South Korean-born person does. A South-Korean feels dignity about their home country, while I, as hard as I try to, cannot. Maybe it is just me, but I feel more American than I do Korean. At home, I am a South Korean, but everywhere else, I am an American. Sometimes I feel like a Korean, at times I feel like an American, but for the majority of the time, I feel like I have no cultural identity.

I have to admit, for someone that tries to fit in with Asians, I also try to stay away from them. Not all, but some. It is inherent for an Asian to talk and to breathe video games, and as much I try to engage in those types of conservations, I simply have no interest and almost feel embarrassed. For them, not me though. Recently, there has been a phenomena spreading the entire planet. Gangnam Style. Until about a month ago, I had known nothing about this Korean (KPOP as Koreans call it) song. And I probably would not have cared had the song and the singer, PSY, shown up on every single talk show and radio station. But even more so, had my non-Asian friends not do the Gangnam Style dance, I too would probably not have done the dance in public as well. This seems like an extreme example, but this just shows how lost I feel culturally.

Jeremy Lin will most likely never be the greatest basketball player of all time. What he is however, and more importantly, is an inspirational figure that can guide a new wave of people into fitting in with society. In no way does he have to become the next Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr., but by making headlines and continuously breaking boundaries, Lin can inspire the most numb-felt Asian-Americans into believing that they belong to be with everybody else.