38 at the Garden

As a casual basketball viewer during the time of Linsanity, I thought it was inspiring to see an undrafted player generate the confidence required to excel in the NBA. The doc gave me greater insight into Lin's foundation and where that confidence came from. Stories of people believing in themselves despite odds transfer a sense of pride we as viewers can tap into in our personal lives. It was beautifully shot and cut in a way that kept me wanting to hear and see what was next. Animations of crowds celebrating during Linsanity took me back to the era where he was going off. Amazing job to the entire team and recommend you give it a watch.

What Jeremy accomplished and still stands for should be a source of hope and inspiration for everyone. This film features an all-star cast of Asian American luminaries, including the inimitable Hasan Minhaj dropping some truth bombs. Frank Chi establishes himself as an exciting new voice in storytelling with this debut short. Laugh, cry and understand the Asian American experience just that much better. The animation also deserves a special call out, helping to deepen the story and add moments of sublime levity that punctuates the narrative flow in a really nice way. All around the positive vibes we all need.

You don't have to be a basketball fan to appreciate this profoundly moving, very topical short documentary. It goes to the heart of the problem of stereotypes, bias, and racism we are currently experiencing in this country.

But it's more than that, it's also the story of how parents can support their child's dream, and not theirs. It's an Asian American story that inspired and will inspire generation of young kids, and hopefully parents as well. Relive the "wave off" and imagine what that gesture can mean for people that doubt themselves, because they are not supposed to be good at something.

On top of that, it's awesome to relive Linsanity, that brief but epic moment of greatness and making the impossible, possible.

I love sports documentaries more than watching sports. So many good stories out there about how someone beat the odds. This story is a perfect example. Incredibly inspiring thing to witness. It makes you want to get to work on things. It's also a prefect example of preaching and victimization. I remember right when this story broke and reading about it. I don't recall one single thing about race and soon i became a fan before seeing the guy play. Was i surprised, sure. Did i or anyone else care, no. But the way the story is told here, is not how I remembered it. Took a perfectly good story and made it about something else.

Short Review!

Sorry, had to make this much longer in order to post here.

This is Really, interesting in the inspirational sense.

As an FYI- There is 1 hour (ie deep not a soundbite) podcast interview with producer Travon Free available Larry Wilmore Black on the Air 19 Oct 2022.

It is over an hour so not a simple soudbyte, but a deep conversation about why and how this was /is so important culturally speaking.

It really stimulated conversation with the class in a non basketball playing country!! Bringing up issues such as the 'cognitive blind spot', where we unknowingly can delude ourselves and strip humanity away from 'the other' and ourselves, by ignoring the EVIDENCE right in front of our eyes as in Lin killing it a school, county and state level AND YET is not offered a single scholarship!

Listen to the podcast and then Watch the documentary, and enjoy deep reflective conversations.