"All I ever wanted to be in life was a super saiyan. I realized something. All of that is possible and more"
A lot of sports writers and talk radio heads on your local media outlet and all over ESPN has (to some degree over)analyzed the idea of why people seem to love the Jeremy Lin story: because of his Asian American heritage, the fact that he always found a way to push ahead despite being denied opportunities, or because of his underdog status.
The comparison's with Tebow are applicable too; humble, Christian underdogs who captured a nation by doing amazing things at the most opportune times.
My problem was, I never thought of Tebow or Lin as what we would call "underdogs". Despite being from a school not known for it's basketball, I doubt your average person would call anyone from Harvard an underdog. As for Tebow, he did win a national championship and was an amazing college quarterback, so he shouldn't get underdog status either.
It wasn't until i recently listened to a B.S. Report podcast with Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman that an interesting idea came up which I thought about for a long time: That maybe the reason we gravitate towards these two stars was because their rise could not be predicted in a world where almost everything is explained. In an environment where not a lot of things can shock you, surprises are more than welcome.
Think about it this way; in the recent NBA All-Star game in Orlando, 23 of the 24 all-star players were first round picks; over half of them drafted right out of high school or after 1 year of college. What does this mean? That by the age of 18-19, chances are people know whether you will become a good basketball player or not.
In a world where we are constantly told what we are capable of, we have gravitate to two stars who are doing what no experts thought they could do. Underdogs have odds stacked against them; what we've seen in sports in these past few months had almost no odds at all*.
*I know I'm not giving Lin and Tebow credit; they slipped through the cracks of scouts and truly do have a ton of talent. My point is that that is the narrative we are drawn to.
We live vicariously through our athletes, something I actually wrote about in regards to Jeremy Lin almost 2 years ago (yes, I am dropping references to myself already in my first post here). My point however, is that the feeling of impossibility really does diminish with these athletes.
Which brings me to this kid; the main reason I wanted to right this.
A kid wanting to be a super saiyan, which coincidentally was one of the dreams I had as a young teen (that did not involve Sarah Michelle Gellar). Yes, it is ridiculous, stupid and hilarious that surely should be joked about on Tosh.0. And before, this would have been something I would have mocked. But after seeing what I have witnessed in sports these past couple months?
Keep on believing kid.
