Tebow comparisons not fair to Jeremy Lin; he's much better story... [View all]

[madinmaryland]

I suppose it was inevitable that some people would compare Jeremy Lin to Tim Tebow. This is partly because every sports story these days must be compared to Tebow, as well as every non-sports story, and retroactively, every previous sports story. But it is also because Linsanity has temporarily replaced Tebowmania as the can-you-believe-that story that your mother who doesn't watch sports might bring up in casual conversation. And because Lin appeals to an unusual demographic for an NBA player (Asian-Americans) just as Tebow appeals to an unusual demographic for an NFL player (evangelical Christians).

The problem is that as stories go, Jeremy Lin makes Tim Tebow seem as interesting as a rain delay. Lin is a much better story because he is a much bigger long shot and is playing much better than Tebow did. He is an undrafted Asian-American guard from Harvard who is playing as well as almost anybody in the NBA. How unlikely is this? Unbelievably so.

Tebow was a five-star recruit who chose Florida over Alabama, LSU, Michigan, USC, and not Harvard. Gators fans clamored for him to start his entire freshman year even though senior Chris Leak was leading the team to a national title. Tebow won another national title two years later.

Tebow also won something called the Heisman Trophy. Perhaps you've heard of it. As a senior at Harvard, Lin lost the Ivy League Player of the Year award to Ryan Wittman of Cornell.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/02/14/lin.tebow/index.html#ixzz1mSY8KFOf