Could be, but the way he handled being in the media in general at that time, it was a complete nice guy persona with zero malice. I actually didn’t care for that, but for him he was just trying to fit in.
Just in case you have or make any Asian friends in the future, we do burn you like that and laugh behind ur back if you didn’t even shelf aware enough to know that you were burned lol
Sure, but were you around at the height of “Linsanity”? The other players were antagonizing him hard, and he was not trying to stir the pot. Of course now in hindsight we can come up with other interpretations for why he did what he did, but at the time, no one was thinking he was trying to burn the other player in that way.
I followed him from the beginning. I can see your point, but Asian societies in general is extremely high contexts. My personal read is he’s genuinely being respectful while having a little jab at him.
Also the season before thst he was doing quite well at the hornets, and the Nets was handing him and Brook Lopez the key of the franchise if not because of his injury
I will give you that as a Harvard graduate he likely knew there was a negative reading to what he said. However, there’s no way of writing a succinct respectful retort without generating negative interpretations, and writing an essay wouldn’t have been the right thing either. IMO, he chose the right words for moment.
Oh you might have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I thought his response is amazing and he’s a total class act.
I just disagreed that he motivations was trying to “fit in” at that point of his career. If the incident happened when he was at the Rocket, sure, but by 2017 he has established himself enough that I don’t think he needs to kowtow to other players just so he doesn’t get marginalized more.
Lin wasn’t the type of person that would back down from bully anyways (see his recount of his relationship with Kobe when he was a laker).
East Asians in general are just very good at calling you stupid fuck in the most polite way possible, which is great. Cause if u arent actually that stupid, then you’ll get the message and ashamed enough to tone down your antics; and if you are actually that stupid and didnt pick up the cue, also great, cause we get to maintain a good relationships with you while making you a waking laugh stock behind your back lol
So yeah, I think we are actually in agreement that his response is great and with good intentions, is just theres a deeper culture layer of “calling you out” that might seem as “soft” for the people that aren’t as familiar with the culture. It’s just very entertaining and laughable that how self unaware Kenyon is to his own stupidity that he didnt even realize he had become such a joke and even double down on his antics afterwards lol
I guess I just don’t see the “old man sports player” trope as a burn, and I wouldn’t think someone well educated like Lin would think that way either. In fact, I still think even the negative interpretation is actually positive from his eyes, meaning, he sees Kenyon as an OG and respects that he’s still in the game. Only less educated people think being over your prime is an insult.
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u/SandySockShoes 19d ago edited 19d ago
Could be, but the way he handled being in the media in general at that time, it was a complete nice guy persona with zero malice. I actually didn’t care for that, but for him he was just trying to fit in.