While
reading Gooseberries by Anton
Chekhov, Nikolay Ivanovitch seems obsessed with achieving one goal, but
stagnates and maybe even declines after achieving that goal. He seems to live
in a fantastical world where he is happy and successful, but realistically is
gloomy and deteriorating in his house. Nikolay reminds me of Jeremy Lin two
years ago.
Jeremy Lin
was a Harvard student who probably had many options in his career with an
economics degree, yet he chose to enter the NBA Draft his senior year. After
remaining undrafted in this draft, he continued to pursue his career in basketball.
Eventually, Lin signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors. He rarely
played in his rookie year and was waived off the team in the next offseason. In
the same year, Lin was added and dropped by the Houston Rockets. Lin was then picked
up by the Knicks in December of 2011. After falling short three times in his
career, Lin didn’t abandon his basketball career. Similar to Nikolay, could
this be considered an obsession to achieve his goal as a successful basketball
player or is this just dedication?
In 2012 with
the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin had a breakthrough season. He averaged 27.3
points, 8.3 assists and 2 steals per game in his first four starts with the Knicks.
In these first starts he proved himself to be a great star and achieved great
fame when the media and fans declared this to be “Linsanity”. Many sports
analysts and fans believed he would become an All-Star Point Guard within the
next couple years. In the offseason, Lin got traded to the Houston Rockets
where he would become the first string Point Guard. Analysts, again, commented
on his talents and how he will prosper with his new team and lead them into the
playoffs. But, in the 2012-13 season, Lin struggled to put up high percentage
shots. The Rockets lost seven of their first twelve games. Although he is still
very young and has time to improve, Lin’s 2012-13 season was not very impressive.
Could this struggling, dull season represent the stagnation Nikolay went into
after achieving his ultimate goal?
I'm struggling to see the relevance of this comparison. Couldn't anyone who works really hard towards a goal be compared to Nikolay using this mindset? But Nikolay's situation was so much more than working for a goal. It consumed his life, causing him to act in ways that seemed deplorable/pitiful. THEN, when he achieved the goal, it was so much less than what he wanted, yet he wouldn't admit that. Does all that apply to Lin?
ReplyDeleteYou have an interesting topic and one that we can all understand or at least comprehend. I'm not sure I would compare Nikolay to J. Lin in this case but if you were to go into depth a bit more I think you may be able to draw some good comparisons to back up the ones you have already.
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