The “Linsanity” phenomenon is now more than seven years old, but the subject of that craze has hung around the NBA since then. Now, he’s worried his time may be up.
Jeremy Lin said he feels that the NBA has “kind of given up on” him during a motivational speech while on a promotional trip to Taiwan.
“In English, there’s a saying and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up,” he said, according to ESPN. “But rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me. So, free agency has been tough. Because I feel like in some ways the NBA’s kind of given up on me.”
Lin burst onto the scene in the 2011-12 season for the New York Knicks, going from a relative no-name claimed off waivers to the Knicks’ top scorer several games in a row. As the first Chinese-American or Taiwanese-American to play in the NBA, he stood out even more.
Since then, Lin has bounced around six more teams and in 2019 won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors, though he hardly came off the bench.
Now 30 and a free agent again, Lin said in his speech that every year gets harder for him.
“After the season I had to get ready for this Asia trip and it was the last thing I wanted to do,” he said. “Because I knew for six weeks I would have to just put on a smile. I would have to talk about a championship that I don’t feel like I really earned. I would have to talk about a [basketball] future I don’t know if I want to have. And honestly, it’s just embarrassing. It’s tough.”
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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