Jeremy Lin ESPN Headline: Network Reveals Dark Side of Remarkable Story

There are multiple sides to any story and that includes the most-hyped NBA tale to date. Jeremy Lin has delivered on the goodwill and remarkable feats of a former D-League scrub turned superstar—ESPN and others have handled the rest. 

ESPN continues to get flack for a headline published with the phrase "chink in the armor." You can see the image here, taken from TMZ.

When you command the wealth of the nation's attention, some milk is going to be spilled. In a rush to understand Lin and put a creative and engaging spin on his amazing story, many rushed too soon to print. 

In the melee of being first, funny or forward-thinking, we had a front row seat to the ugly side of online journalism. When you don't take a breath or speak without thought, prejudice and racism can leak out. 

The nation still holds onto racism like any other relic of years gone by, but it's only in the heat of the moment that we see its prevalence. 

This was not the first time that thoughts on race had leaked out from the fuel tank powered on Lin's brilliance. Fox Sports' columnist Jason Whitlock showed that Twitter can indeed be one of the ugliest places on the Internet. 

Here is a tweet that he sent out in regards to a February 10th game against the Lakers, which has since been taken down. 

Whitlock has since apologized, and so has ESPN, for their transgressions. A headline writer has been fired and the nation is forced to remember that race is something about which we still care greatly. 

Lin was a nobody with professional basketball talents. It took the right team to be dealt some serious injury blows to the roster for us to all get a good long look at the Knicks superstar. 

This isn't something that happens every day, or even every season for that matter. Lin's tale will never be duplicated and is a special case that still confounds. 

We continue to chisel away to unmask this amazing story that is too entertaining to be true. When the world comments on such things, there is spill over. 

The ugly and dark get their time to shine alongside the good stuff. Even in a story that makes the nation feel good, there was bound to be a little of what haunts us tied to it. 

Racism is something that binds us altogether, because our past is steeped in the stuff. It also happens to be our present, as we were blasted with how grand small-mindness can still be. 

The hope is that the future is different and that the next great story in this American culture doesn't have to be sullied in this way. 

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