March Madness. The greatest time of the year for so many sports fans across the country. It’s one of the few tournaments in which cinderellas can actually exist. A month filled with incredulous upsets, inspirational stories and heartbreaking moments.
But in the 82-year history of the event, never has there been a storyline revolving around an Asian American athlete. Until this March. In came Johnny Juzang, the Vietnamese American scoring machine who was an All-PAC-12 selection and UCLA’s leader in scoring after and disappointing freshman season at Kentucky. By that time, he was decently known around the basketball world, largely due to his All-American status in high school.
But on college basketball’s biggest stage, he made sure people heard and remembered his name.
Jonathan Anh Juzang.
The sophomore led a program that was one of the last teams to make the tournament — down double digits in their opening game — to the Final Four. A player that scored 137 points in six games, second-most in UCLA history. Hitting clutch shots time and time again over smothering defense. Literally single-handedly willing his team to victory over Michigan by nearly outscoring the Wolverine starting five alone.
The NCAA Tournament has the unique ability to create heroes in a way that’s virtually unreplicable elsewhere. And Johnny, with his Vietnamese mother in the stands and his brothers surprising him after a 25 hour transit from Vietnam, captivated the Asian American community in a way that college basketball has never seen before.
There have only been a few moments in national-level sports that have resonated deeply in the hearts of Asian Americans. Most obviously, Linsanity in 2012. Michael Chang winning the French Open in 1989 at age 17. Chloe Kim winning Gold in 2018. There are others, but the list doesn’t go on for long.
While Juzang’s legendary run won’t match the historic nature of those three moments, it will still be one that is remembered forever. It appalled me the way in which they lost to Gonzaga because, in my mind, I knew much greater of an impact he could have had on the community had the Bruins gone all the way.
But thankfully, his story has just begun to be written. He may very well become the first ever Asian American NBA lottery pick and the first Vietnamese American to ever play in the league.
How the Asian American community will embrace him as a mixed race athlete is up for debate. But I know for sure that I take so much pride in what he’s doing. A level of pride that I’ve never felt since Linsanity.
