Pacquiao joins Lin-sanity craze; Pinoy champ to meet Knicks guard

Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, like the rest of the basketball world, is also following the Jeremy Lin craze. Paquiao will personally meet the sensational New York Knicks guard as part of his itinerary when he visits the Big Apple next week to promote his June 9 welterweight title showdown with Timothy Bradley. The meeting will take place on February 22 (Wednesday, Thursday in Manila) when Pacquiao watches the Knicks' home game against the visiting Atlanta Hawks at the Madison Square Garden. The New York trip is the second of a short, two-city media tour arranged by Top Rank Promotions to drum up the Pacquiao-Bradley match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Pacquiao and Bradley will kick-off their press promo tour on February 21, Tuesday, in Beverly Hills, California. The coast-to-coast media tour then moves to New York on February 23 at the Chelsea Piers at Pier 60. Pacquiao will also have a photo shoot for Nike before watching the Knicks' game against the Hawks where he is scheduled to meet the 23-year-old Lin, the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent who became an instant celebrity with his spectacular plays that sparked the Knicks to seven straight wins. Incidentally, Lin was the same player whom undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. referred to as a "good player, but all the hype is because he’s Asian." "Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise," Mayweather posted on his Twitter account, a remark that received a lot of flak for its racist tone. Mayweather later added, "other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine. As soon as I support Black American athletes, I get criticized." Pacquiao and Mayweather, two of boxing's biggest attractions today, have been trying to arrange a mega-fight that analysts believe could go down as the richest and biggest ever in the history of the sport. But differences concerning several aspects of the bout—fight date, purse, drug testing —had repeatedly canceled the fight. Negotiations of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight began in 2009. After the media tour, the 33-year-old Pacquiao will return to Manila, while Bradley proceeds to Bristol, Connecticut to guest on ESPN's Friday Night Fights. Pacquiao and Canadian adviser Michael Koncz left for the U.S. Thursday night to attend the deposition in connection with the lawsuit he filed against Mayweather, his father Floyd Sr. and uncle/trainer Roger Mayweather for their earlier insinuations suggesting the Filipino has used performance enhancing drugs. The Sarangani representative, after attending the court hearing in Las Vegas together with Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum, will grace the Power of Love Gala celebrating the 70th birthday of boxing great Muhammad Ali. Pacquiao is among the sports' stars attending the affair together with other boxing luminaries such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, George Foreman, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks and Marvelous Marvin Hagler. — JVP, GMA News