I am short. Five feet, one-and-a-half inches to be exact, and yes, the extra half-inch counts for a lot. You can imagine that as a height-challenged youth, basketball wasn’t a particularly appealing choice. I played a little H-O-R-S-E in my day, but that was about the extent of my basketball career. Never was a great shot. I certainly can’t remember ever watching an entire NBA game from start to finish, or much in between either. But even I can get behind an unlikely hero. This week, Knicks star Jeremy Lin became an overnight star that some are calling “Linderella”. Knicks fans in NYC and across the country have embraced American-born, Harvard-educated Lin as their hometown hero. Equally as excited? Basketball fans all over China who claim Lin as one of their own. During an era that exposed Mark McGwire’s fall from grace, and that stripped Tyler Hamilton and Alberto Contador of their Tour de France victories, we can all use a hero. And if that hero builds a bridge from China to the USA, then perhaps it helps to open our eyes to the reality that we really are more alike than different.
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