The same racial stereotypes that dogged Yao Ming early in his NBA career are now being cast upon Harvard educated, New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin.
American sports network ESPN was forced to apologise yesterday for an anti-Asian slur directed at Chinese-American Lin that appeared in a story about the point guard following the Knicks' 89-85 loss on Saturday.
The headline ''Chink in the Armour'' was included in an online story about Lin's role in the game that ended New York's seven-game winning streak.
ESPN said in a statement it was ''conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologise for this mistake.''
ESPN claimed that the headline appeared to only mobile browsers for a 35-minute period but long enough for scores of people to see it.
The Knicks have been on a magical run since former part-time player Lin was called upon with two starters missing and answered with the most points of any NBA player in his first five starts since the NBA and ABA merged in 1976.
Lin was cut by two clubs before the season started. While most Americans are captivated by the ''Lin-sanity'' phenomenon, others, like US African-American boxer Floyd Mayweather, are not.
''Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise,'' Mayweather said.
Retired eight-time NBA all-star Yao had to face taunts and ethnic slurs when he broke into the league in 2002, including former Los Angeles Laker Shaquille O'Neal who once mockingly told a television reporter, ''Tell Yao Ming, 'ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh'.'' AFP
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