Jeremy Lin started bleeding again last night.
This time it was from the nose, after getting smacked by a defender as he drove to the basket.
Last time it was from the chin — a deep gash that required glue and a band-aid that refused to stick to his sweaty face, and instead dangled there as he shredded the Wizards to pieces.
Dude bleeds all the time, arguably more than any young Asian-American Harvard alum in the league.
But why?
Two possibilities
- He's physically small and he's constantly driving to the basket. Therefore he's likely to get fouled hard and lose his balance, thus tumbling to the ground and getting cut by things like the floor, other players' shoes, the basket stand, photography equipment, etc.
- Hemophilia.
It's one of these two.
But here's the bigger point about Lin being a bleeder: we eat it up.
In sports, blood is mostly a metaphor. It's used in cliche to signify desire ("blood, sweat, and tears" has nothing to do with, like, bodily fluids). It's used commercials to signify toughness. We hold it in our collective consciousness as a symbol of confidence and masculinity.
So when pro athletes are actually bleeding, there's this strange phenomenon where the symbolic significance of "blood" becomes REAL. We're all like, "Is he bleeding? OH MY SH*T, he is bleeding!"
Once the blood flows, we assume that the player must be tough, he must care, because why the hell else would he allow his skin to be broken like that?
LeBron James could shut everyone up about how "soft" he is by simply barreling into some courtside seats and getting shanked by some rich cougar's bracelet.
Because of the nature of his story, no one would dare question Lin's desire or toughness. So the bleeding thing is just further proof — a justification for all the things we assume he is.
It's a genius move.
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