JEREMY LIN You were a McDonald’s All American and played at Duke, and then coached me for four years at Harvard. Now you’re the head coach at Howard, doing big things.
KENNY BLAKENEY It’s such a pleasure to have this conversation. You’re one of the smartest players I’ve been around, your ability to score, or your ability to make your teammates better, was just truly different than I’ve seen at the college level. And for me, it wasn’t a thing about your race or anything like that. I was just looking at your talent. I wasn’t judging you for anything different than that. And right, wrong or indifferent, it’s very unfortunate that we are judged on being Black or you being Asian, or what-ever. Those kinds of titles are things that people probably see before they actually can see our ability and our talent and who we really are as people.
JL You’re saying, Look, you have talent, you’re tough, you have quick feet, your ability to stop and go. And to me, the reason why I really appreciate that is because it’s not like I’m deceptively athletic or deceptively tough. That has been my thing that has always been brought to me, even now, as I’ve tried to make the NBA this past season: Well, does he have dog? Like, those are the questions that were being asked to my agent. And I’m like, You don’t think I That type of stuff is the tag that I can’t shake. You’re just like,
