Watch how Jeremy Lin grabs his 10th rebound (the second to last clip). Now that’s dedication to an arbitrary statistical goal! He’s a man on a mission. He knows full well how close he is to the storied trip-dub, and he wants it. Bad.
Then look at his reaction after he gets the final assist and accomplishes the feat. It’s like nothing even happened. He doesn’t care at all. The crowd is going wild, the commentators are delirious with joy. But Jeremy? Stone-cold. “Oh, a triple-double? That’s cool, but I was too worried about winning the game to care about my individual stats”.
That’s the weird dichotomy of professional sports. The athletes obviously and blatantly care deeply about their individual accomplishments. Who can blame them? But when pressed by the media, they spout endless platitudes about “teamwork” and “bouf teams play harr”.
But all that’s beside the point. Jeremy Lin just got a triple-double! It’s a very impressive feat. At least, until you look at the list of people who have done it. I’ll save you the trouble and give you a most damning teaser: Drew Gooden is on that list. Twice.
So how much of an accomplishment is it, really?