Lin is hot because he's playing in New York more so than him being Asian. Him being Asian helps for selling his brand to the Asian community, but him being on every cover from here to infinity is because he plays for the Knickerbockers in New York.
Tyronn Lue had the same type of hype for him when he 'supposedly' shut down Allen Iverson during the Lakers run back in 2000, but after he was traded away you never heard his name again except when people referred back to his Lakers play time.
Move him out of New York and he media hype will die down. The Asian community will continue to love him the same way they loved Yao Ming, but he won't be on 24/7.
As for Tebow, saying "he's white and he gets hyped" is silly. Football is a different sport and a white QB isn't uncommon at all. Him being hyped isn't because he's white, it's because he's the stereotypical model christian citizen who constantly puts his faith in front of everything he does. "Thank God I was able to successfully brush my teeth this morning". "Thank God that I was able to tie my shoelaces with them breaking." "Thank God the orange I got from the market wasn't sour". Since the majority of America is christian, he's got the "asian community vibe" going on, but replace Asian with Christian and then balance the hype proportionally.
You can say that it helps that Tebow is white because non-white extremely religious players like Reggie White or Troy Polamolu don't get half the coverage that Tebow gets, but the reason for that is none of them are as in your face constantly religious as Tebow. Look at another white religious QB (who was 10x as talented as Tebow), Kurt Warner. He didn't get anywhere near the amount of hype because he wasn't as vocal about it. It also helps that Tebow kinda sucks as a QB thus there's the trainwreck factor going on.
Attributing their popularity exclusively on their race is as ignorant as saying that the only reason Tiger Woods was a popular golfer is because he's black/asian.
As for Mayweather, I just assume he's an idiot and chalk his ignorant comments up to that. I doubt he's afraid of Pacquiao, he just over values his self. He thinks he's too good to fight someone like Pacquiao.
Tyronn Lue had the same type of hype for him when he 'supposedly' shut down Allen Iverson during the Lakers run back in 2000, but after he was traded away you never heard his name again except when people referred back to his Lakers play time.
Move him out of New York and he media hype will die down. The Asian community will continue to love him the same way they loved Yao Ming, but he won't be on 24/7.
As for Tebow, saying "he's white and he gets hyped" is silly. Football is a different sport and a white QB isn't uncommon at all. Him being hyped isn't because he's white, it's because he's the stereotypical model christian citizen who constantly puts his faith in front of everything he does. "Thank God I was able to successfully brush my teeth this morning". "Thank God that I was able to tie my shoelaces with them breaking." "Thank God the orange I got from the market wasn't sour". Since the majority of America is christian, he's got the "asian community vibe" going on, but replace Asian with Christian and then balance the hype proportionally.
You can say that it helps that Tebow is white because non-white extremely religious players like Reggie White or Troy Polamolu don't get half the coverage that Tebow gets, but the reason for that is none of them are as in your face constantly religious as Tebow. Look at another white religious QB (who was 10x as talented as Tebow), Kurt Warner. He didn't get anywhere near the amount of hype because he wasn't as vocal about it. It also helps that Tebow kinda sucks as a QB thus there's the trainwreck factor going on.
Attributing their popularity exclusively on their race is as ignorant as saying that the only reason Tiger Woods was a popular golfer is because he's black/asian.
As for Mayweather, I just assume he's an idiot and chalk his ignorant comments up to that. I doubt he's afraid of Pacquiao, he just over values his self. He thinks he's too good to fight someone like Pacquiao.