STAR POWER: Kevin Costner and Eva Longoria yesterday get a look at Jeremy Lin, who led the Knicks to a huge victory at Madison Square Garden. (Reuters)
STAR POWER: Kevin Costner and Eva Longoria yesterday get a look at Jeremy Lin, who led the Knicks to a huge victory at Madison Square Garden. (Reuters (inset photo))
ESPN yesterday called an offensive foul on two employees for using a racist term in a headline and story about Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin.
A headline writer, whose name was not released, was fired, while anchor Max Bretos was benched for 30 days.
The out-of-bounds phrase — “chink in the armor” — referred to Chinese-American Lin’s struggles Friday in the Knicks’ first loss since he made a splash.
It appeared as a headline on ESPN’s mobile site Saturday.
Bretos, who used the term Wednesday on ESPNEWS, defended himself by tweeting, “My wife is Asian, would never intentionally say anything to disrespect her and that community.’’
He added, “I have learned from this — will make every effort to avoid something similar happening again.’’
ESPN also apologized.
But the point guard graciously passed off the brouhaha as just a misunderstanding.
“I don’t think it was on purpose or whatever, but they have apologized and so from my end, I don’t care anymore,” he said yesterday after leading the Knicks to a 104-97 win over the defending-champ Dallas Mavericks.
Lin’s jaw-dropping performance — scoring 28 points while dishing out 14 assists — had Madison Square Garden rocking and rolling with the electricity of a playoff game.
“That game was excellent, like watching a movie. Lin did awesome — you can see he’s really taking ownership of the team and running the point,” said jubilant Knick fan David Goodman, 28, of Waterbury, Conn.
“The atmosphere, no words to describe it,” he gushed. “It’s the Garden! It was unbelievable!”
Lin was all smiles following the final buzzer, when he got a congratulatory hug from childhood idol and fellow Bay Area native Jason Kidd of the Mavs.
“This one is a big one just because they’re a great team — defending champions,” Lin said.
Among the 19,763 fanatics at MSG were Lin’s teammates from the 2006 California state champion Palo Alto HS Vikings.
Even as a scrawny 5-foot-3 freshman, Lin showed an instinct for hoops, his old coach Peter Diepenbrock said.
“He came in with an incredible feel for the game. We knew he had that,” Diepenbrock said.