Though he is no longer in the NBA, it cannot be denied that Jeremy Lin experienced a big boost in his basketball career way back in 2012. The 32-year-old took the NBA by storm, breaking out with the New York Knicks which resulted in the rise of “Linsanity.”
But like anything else, any run will come to an end. From a rising star in New York, Lin found himself on a rollercoaster journey. He would move to the Houston Rockets, something that did not pan out well. Lin went to the Lakers afterward but his fortunes hardly changed.
From there, he found some semblance of importance with the Charlotte Hornets. He performed well and once again earned the attention of teams. The Brooklyn Nets seemed like the place to be but injuries kept him from flying. He would try again with the Atlanta Hawks but ended up being waived. The Toronto Raptors took him in but the run hardly saw him getting chances.
Lin won an NBA ring, a rarity for any player. Though people questioned it at first, the American-Asian later realized that he did do his share of helping the team.
“As a competitor who plays and has played my whole life, I’m not used to not playing, so I was like, ‘This is tough, do I really deserve it?’” Lin said on the “Off The Pill Podcast.” “Then I started to think about my whole journey and I definitely do. I contributed to the team, I played 23 games in the regular season. I play against these guys all the time, whether it’s in workouts or whatever, even watching the game and talking to guys, giving my opinion, being a voice.”
Lin was at an all-time low last season with no NBA team picking him up. He ended up in the CBA and is now hoping to get another crack at the NBA. Through all that, Lin appears to have gotten himself together. But he revealed via the South China Morning Post that he had to deal with some anguish when “Linsanity” started to go down.
“I was just so ashamed because everything I worked so hard to achieve I started to lose. I lost my starting position, I lost a lot of endorsements and I lost a lot of the popularity,” Lin said.
For now, Lin is staying positive and hoping to get another chance at playing in the NBA. It will not be easy but working his way up is nothing new to Jeremy Lin.
