NBA says Hornets’ Jeremy Lin is not disadvantaged by officials
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In response to a New York Times story detailing the lack of flagrant fouls drawn by Jeremy Lin, the NBA released a statement on Friday saying the league found no data to show officials put the Charlotte point guard at a disadvantage.
The release cited statistics that Lin ranks No. 21 among NBA players with 1,537 drives to the basket during the last three seasons. Lin has not drawn a flagrant foul on any of those drives, but neither have several guards with more drives.
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Lin has drawn 814 total fouls during that time, ranking him No. 7 among players with more than 1,500 in rate of fouls drawn. About one in every 500 fouls is called flagrant, so the lack of flagrant fouls in respect to Lin was deemed statistically insignificant.
The original New York Times article, which was published on Thursday, described a group of fans who are questioning “latent racial biases” in NBA officiating. Lin was born in America but is the son of two Taiwanese immigrants.
Lin fan Hsiu-Chen Kuei spliced together this video to show Lin was receiving inadequate protection from officials. The video has more than 1.2 million views on YouTube.
The Hornets are the No. 6 seed in the NBA playoffs and begin their first-round series against the third-seeded Heat on Sunday.
