Boxer calls Lin a good player, but overshadows comment with race bit.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather can't seem to keep his mouth shut.
Instead of focusing on his upcoming fight with Miguel Cotto on May 5th in Las Vegas, Nevada, the boxer has taken to talking about other athletes in sports completely apart from his own.
His new target is New York Knicks phenom and NBA darling Jeremy Lin. Mayweather tweeted yesterday, "Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise." Floyd also went on to tweet, "Other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine. As soon as I support Black American athletes, I get criticized."
The twittersphere was abuzz over Mayweather's comments with some dismissive of the statement, while others said he has a point.
What we are missing about this is that Floyd did acknowledge that Lin is a good player. We can't discount that. We have to give him credit for at least acknowledging that. But his mistake was in crediting race as the main factor for the hype. While Lin is the first Asian-American to ever play in the league, there are so many facets that make this story what it is. Lin went to Harvard which has only produced 4 NBA players, was cut numerous times and now comes out of nowhere to become an overnight sensation on one of the league's marquee franchises.
When it comes to Floyd's comments about black athletes, he's absolutely wrong. What he fails to understand is that black athletes have dominated the NBA for four decades now. Black athletes get the accolades every day in the NBA. So again, while Floyd is right that race plays a role in all of this, it's not the main factor. It's just part of a story that continues to capture the hearts and minds of basketball fans not just in the USA, but across the world.
-loop21