CHARLOTTE, NC —Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin has had a surprisingly successful season, following what some would call an uneven NBA career since leaving the Knicks and “Linsanity” behind. The 27-year-old Harvard graduate said during preseason that his main focus was to improve his shooting and is currently averaging 3.7 3-point attempts each game—the peak of his career—and is shooting 36 percent from long range. While hardly Earth-shattering, this follows Hornets head coach Steve Clifford’s emphasis on the 3-point shot in order to build a more aggressive, and better spaced, offense.

It may be too soon to say, but the NBA-underdog-turned-NBA-super-saiyan may have a long-term home with the Hornets, a team built around optimizing this player’s catch-and-shoot abilities.  

However, some die-hard Linsanity fans are preoccupied with something else entirely: Lin’s hair. Many have expressed that Lin’s spiky new ‘do reveals a contentiousness in his character off the court.

“I do not like his hair—do not like it,” said Jia Chen, 51-year-old Houston native, whose daughter is finishing her senior year at UCLA. “I used to think Jeremy was the perfect guy. Smart, good-looking, nice. Now I’m not so sure.”

Chen said she has never met Lin in person but saw him play at Toyota Center when Lin was point guard for the Rockets.

When asked what she thinks about Lin’s new hair, Chen’s daughter shrugged and said, “I think it’s hot,” before adding, “Wait, Jeremy who?”

Airong Zhang, 55-year-old mother of three from Cupertino, CA, said of Lin’s hair, “I just don’t know what compelled Jeremy to do his hair like that. Aya! He has really changed.”

Zhang added that she had once hoped her oldest daughter would end up with a guy like Lin.

“He used to be such a gentleman,” Zhang said, shaking her head wistfully. “Such a shame—and from someone who graduated from an Ivy! Aya.”

Her eldest daughter, Jenny Zhang, said, “My mom had absolutely no interest in basketball until she heard about Jeremy Lin’s golden streak with the Knicks. She was so excited to see an Asian face in the NBA—one who graduated from Harvard and was sleeping on his brother’s couch no less. She’s been obsessed ever since.”

 

But Lin’s new look appears to have shaken the elder Zhang’s interest.

“Now she’s heartbroken and considering becoming a Warriors fan,” Jenny said of her mother. “Now she’s saying Steph Curry is ‘a really good guy.’”

Is Lin’s hair contributing to his confidence on the court? Who can say. But one thing is for sure: a huge demographic of Lin’s fans—middle-aged Chinese women with unmarried daughters—miss the old Lin, the guy who, despite being timid and uncomfortable with the ball, at least had hair that was decent.