Ivy League Athlete

While the NBA is in a labor dispute and fans worry about the possibility that there won’t be an NBA season next year, we’d like to highlight an Ivy League athlete who is currently on the roster of the Golden State Warriors, having just finished his rookie season. This is not only noteworthy because he, a Harvard grad, is the first Ivy League athlete to play in the NBA in ten years (Yale’s Chris Dudley retired in 2001) but also because he is the first Asian-American to play in the NBA since 1947.

Jeremy Lin, a Harvard grad, marks the first Ivy Leaguer in the NBA in ten years. He's also the first Asian-American to play in the NBA since 1947 (photo from Lisa Blumenfeld / Getty Images).

Harvard’s Jeremy Lin is indeed a barrier breaker. He wasn’t even a big college recruit. He sent videos and stats to UCLA. They said maybe he could walk on, but they weren’t going to recruit him. Stanford (in his hometown of Palo Alto) overlooked him. The Harvard coach even dismissed Lin to his high school coach only to call back later to say he’d spoken too soon. Brown and Harvard were the only schools to recruit him in the end and Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships.

Since being signed to a two-year contract as an undrafted rookie, Jeremy Lin has shown potential to excel in the NBA game. In limited minutes, the Harvard grad, who is also the first player of Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, is a crowd favorite. This is partially due to the fact that he’s an Asian-American in the NBA and also due to the fact that he’s a hometown hero, playing in the same area where he once led his high school to much basketball success. If the crowd only knew that Lin plays much better on the road! On the road, the modest Lin can find more anonymity! At least for now…

Check out our posts: College Admissions and March Madness and College Athletics.

Related Ivy Coach Blog Posts:

• Harvard Basketball
  Don't expect any Ivy League basketball team to compete with Harvard this year. They're quite simply ...
• The Ivy League Influence on Career
  There is an article on CNBC today that tackles the issue of whether or not an Ivy League education i...
• Ivy League Workers
  A study put out by Rasmussen finds that only 3% of persons polled found that Ivy League graduates ma...
• Ivy League Athletic Recruits
  For those current Brown University fencers, wrestlers, and women's skiers (as well as prospective ap...