Is Korean-American pool star Jeanette Lee the Robert Kim of the professional billiards world?
Sparkles of Psychedelic Kimchi seems to think so. Or at least I think he thinks so.
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32 Comments
Saw her play once on TV. Great cleavage.
It could also go the other way. I wonder how the Koreans feel about one of their star national athletes prefering to live in Indianapolis rather than Korea. Indianapolis, that’s only one step above the Quad Cities.
While I’m here. I’m assuming most readers are living in Korea. So you might not be aware that they have been running “Come visit Korea” type tourist ads on TV here in the US. I don’t recall ever seeing tourist ads for Korea before. Not even during the Olympics. So what do you think? Korea, good value for your tourist dollar or not?
Jeanette Lee plays billiards for the Korean team rather than the US team in a made-for-TV event, and some wanker gets in a huff over it? It could be that Lee simply played for the Korean team in order to give the Koreans someone to root for, or to balance the level of competition; it could even be as simple as needing a player to switch sides to fill out the team — like having one guy go over to the “shirts” team instead of the “skins”. Is that player a traitor to the skins? Why are we even throwing out the word “traitor”? It’s not like Jeanette Lee joined al Qaeda.
Also, televised billiards isn’t even a sport, really — not even as much a sport as televised poker, or Starcraft for that matter. Completely ridiculous.
I would prefer it if she played for the ’skins’ team. Then I might actually watch the tournament for more than 10 minutes.
Anyway, sounds like a money play on her part (don’t really see anything wrong with that, necessarily). And anyway, who cares? It’s only billiards (yawn-though more interesting than Starcraft tourneys).
I agree with brendon. I don’t see what the big fuss is about. Didn’t mike piazza go play for the italian team during the olympics? Is he a traitor?
I also agree with brendon, but I do understand where the author is coming from. You can’t really blame Jeannette Lee for what she did, if you remember Michelle Kwan’s olympic silver medal performance (newspapers headlining American beats Kwan, referring to Tara Lipinski), it’s kind of an interesting position that asian american athletes are placed in.
The headline use of “American” describes the then-unknown competitor Lipinski who bested Michelle Kwan. Guarantee you that if Nancy Kerrigan had beaten Michelle Kwan, it would have been “Kerrigan Beats Kwan”. But you’re free to find racism wherever you want, especially if you’re looking for it everywhere.
Not a traitor…just playing both sides, like Michelle Wie. Whatever happens to be convenient at the time.
I’m going to have to go ahead and agree with you guys. It’s pro pool, not the Olympics. Nothing to see here. Next.
Remember the World Baseball Championship? Some of the players for Italy and the Netherlands were American-born yet switched sides to make for a slightly more even and interesting tournament. No harm done.
“Not a traitor…just playing both sides, like Michelle Wie. Whatever happens to be convenient at the time.”
Boy, since Clinton, we’ve really lowered our expectations of public figures.
Do steroids make for a slighty more interesting level of play?
Um… I’m not looking for racism, I’m just looking at it from the other side since the article is giving her so much shi*t. And as for the newspapers, that is just a weak excuse for careless writing.
That’d be Nixon you’re meaning there…
This is no biggie. But comparing ANYONE to Robert Kim is worse than libel.
For a Korean broad, Jeanette certainly has a “rack”!
Well, if you can consider a person who most people probably wouldn’t consider an ‘athelete’ who plays professionally a game that maybe gets an average viewership about on-par with professional thumb wrestling a ‘public figure’, then yeah… I guess our expectations of public figures have really gotten a lot lower. After all, before Clinton, you usually had to do something notable in order to be considered a public figure. Damn Al Gore and his Internet!
As for Ms. Lee: As long as she’s playing within the rules of the game, why not? Heck, if the pride of any country is truly injured by a billiards player batting for the other team, I would have to say that the country in question really needs to work on its self-esteeem.
I met Jeanette Lee once at Amsterdam Billiards in Manhattan a while back. My old folks knew her parents and her older sister. I visited their home once. So I introduced myself and said “Nice to meet you. I’ve met and spoken with your father…” Then she frowned and asked me “which father?”
OOOOOkay.
By the way, while we’re on this topic, can someone please tell the Italians to stop putting stickers of the Italian flag on their SUVs? And who gives a shit about Christopher Columbus? But Italian chicks are hot. Can someone also pass the memo to the Irish with their bumper stickers? I dont give a shit about them loving Irish music, or Raindance, or St Patrick. And no, I wont kiss them because they’re Irish unless they’re a hot Irish chick. Dont even get me started on the Jews…
BTW, I dont know why she decided to play for the Korea Team against the US team. It may have been something completely mercenary….or maybe not. Who the hell knows? But if it was something other than just money, it has absolutely nothing to do where one’s birthplace, citizenship, or other legal technicalities.
This Psychelic Kimchi fellow is merely projecting his own personal insecurities into the situation. Expats are so easy to figure out.
I think she was being quite shrewd. Otherwise, the Korean public would never let her set foot on the peninsula again. She’d also open herself up to endless online harassment under the “gae ddong nyeo” police. Her family and relatives would become open game, too. Who needs the stress? I would have done the same.
Was Nathan Algren (the Tom Cruise character) in the “Last Samurai” a traitor?
Was Lt John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) in “Dances with Wolves” a traitor?
Was “anjin-san” in the movie “Shogun” a traitor?
Is The Marmot (a hankok wearing white dude) a traitor?
As an old rap song during the 80s used to go “it’s about the dollar bill yo”. The logic of cold, hard cash and business easily overrides any vague sentimental abstractions such as patriotism or loyalty to one’s whatever. No one is immune from this. Anyone who disputes this is an established hypocrite or one waiting to happen. Jeanette Lee is a business woman and something tells me she doesnt give a flying fuck what some insecure loser living in Korea, whining on his blog, thinks.
the black widow gets credit for figuring out what michelle wie, hines ward, daniel henney, rick yune, and scores of other “talent” with any peripheral tie to korea already knew. that waving the taeguki, smiling at the camera, and talking about how much you love dwengjang chiggye is an easy route to milking loads of cash from nationalistic simpletons, desperately eager to grasp onto anything resembling success in the bloodline.
i’m sure hines gave her a call as soon as he got back from his triumphant return…regaling her with tales of endorsement contracts, meetings with the president, free flights and hotels, and more press coverage in a week than he got in his entire life in the states.
she, like all the others, will laugh her way to the bank. and then she’ll go back to her real — as opposed to temporary fake — home and continue living like, and identifying herself, as an american.
good on her for identifying the suckers, and double good on her for her milking them.
’90s rap song. Wu Tang Clan. C.R.E.A.M.
by the way jivesy old pal…since you claim to have met lee, i’m curious about your interaction with her.
considering the fact that she’s married to whitey, i would assume you let her have both barrels of your psychological profile of korean women involved in interracial relationships. i assume you told her that she’s contributing to the breakdown of society. and that she’s obviously mentally unstable, and a participant in some sick, twisted game of identity politics. then you probably told her that she must be lacking in self-respect and self-esteem to be involved with a non-korean.
then again, maybe you just wilted like a pussywillow in the presence of a woman that would likely shove 4 poolsticks up your ass if you did let loose with your racist bullshit psycho-babble.
if anyone’s taking wagers, i’ll go ahead and put my money on the latter scenario.
Well, well, well…look who decided to show up.
Personally, I dont really care that much about Jeanette Lee. Sorry to say but she often looks like one hell of a mean bitch with a big chip on her shoulders when she plays pool. Probably has a load of “daddy” issues as well, judging from what I’ve discovered via my personal interaction with her.
Since you brought it up, balls, you whiteys can have the likes of her. Guys like me dont care much for the Jeanette Lee’s or the Lucy Liu’s of this world. Let me clue you in on something: I know and understand girls like her. The reason why she’s with whitey is because she had issues with her Korean father (or fathers, as the case may be), her parents, and by extension, the rest of the Korean community. It’s some kind of a “rebellion”. You white guys should understand this perfectly well also. After all, isnt that why some white girls (with “daddy issues”) go exclusively after black guys? And I know how you guys think about these white chicks also…like something along the lines of “if you go black, we dont want you back”. So guess what? You’re our “niggers”. So have fun dealing with these issue-ridden, complicated chicks with big chips on their shoulders. In fact, you seem to have a mighty big one yourself, so you’d be perfect.
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Bwahaha, nice one Dogbertt. I’d almost forgotten about that. Nothing like toddleresque (mis)use of his ‘mother tongue’ to put all of his expert opinions on Korean society and whitey back into perspective.
Wow. If you can extrapolate all that solely from someone’s dating history and a brief encounter with them, imagine how fucked up a guy whose ‘dating history looks like a Benneton ad’ would be.
perfect analogy. since we’re your “niggers,” then it’s obvious that you’re the ignorant, backwards, racist, bigot redneck of the 1930’s, complete with hood and noose in hand. you know, yelling at yer women that they better not be datin’ them there negroids or you’re bound to beat the piss out of them. in fact, your noose and hood are barely half a step away from a brown shirt, a goose-step, and a bad moustache in theory.
not only that, but you — and the good majority of bloodline-obsessed adjoshi types that seem to be the overwhelming majority of korean males — are right out in the open and proud of your bigotry.
you don’t even need the hood.
Worse than the bigotry is the hypocrisy.