Team USA missed on Jeremy Lin

Team USA could have selected a superior 12th man that embodies the Olympic spirit and opportunity with Jeremy Lin.

Team USA could have selected a superior 12th man that embodies the Olympic spirit and opportunity with Jeremy Lin.

Team USA missed the Jeremy Lin Opportunity

Jeremy Lin played on his 5th NBA team this season in Charlotte.

Team USA Basketball will unveil it’s full roster of twelve players today. This year’s olympics fall at a bad time (free agency dollars are jumping more than any other year in league history) and location (Rio, Brazil sounds appealing but Zika virus has many players second guessing participation), which has reduced interest from the country’s top professional players. However the squad will still be made up of NBA all-stars and franchise type performers such as Kevin Durant, Paul George, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins, Carmelo Anthony among others. Every selection has been an NBA all-star sans one very curious choice, Harrison Barnes. It’s the selection of Barnes where Team USA threw away a perfect opportunity to highlight the country’s diversity, the sport’s international appeal and reward a hard working, passionate heartwarming Olympic story in selecting american born chinese descent Jeremy Lin.

Let’s put aside the question of whether Lin would have accepted an invitation, given his free agency it may not have been practical (then again Harrison Barnes is also a free agent so anything is possible with the honor of playing for your country). Lin is the consummate professional, who has bounced between 5 NBA teams, played in the D League and generally fought for every opportunity he’s seen. He’s bridging the current cultural goliath in the world to the country quickly emerging as the future leader, and he demonstrates as well as any other prospective Olympian the beauty of the American immigration story at the very point in time we, USA, need to be setting a world example.

Statistically Lin is a slightly superior player to Harrison Barnes (PER: 15 vs. 11.6; slightly higher WS) but he’s a much bigger star (partly thanks to Linsanity as well as being the first American born of chinese descent to play in the NBA). It’s those factors, his journey, what he stands for and represents that sets an example to his team, country and the world as a true Olympic story that made this a major miss for Coach K and the Team USA selection committee. Barnes is a fine choice it’s just not the best choice.