The NBA return plans of Jeremy Lin suffered a big blow after the Golden State Warriors failed to secure the American-Asian’s clearance from FIBA. It was a requirement needed to sign Linsanity. With that development, the Warriors signed (and waived) Eli Pemberton instead.
Pemberton is set to play for the Warriors’ G-League affiliate team, Santa Cruz. It was the same plan that Golden State was looking at for Lin.
The Warriors were walking on a thin line with the planned sign-and-waive deal. They needed to come up with the FIBA clearance by 11:00 p.m. but failed, Marc Stein of the New York Times reported. However, Lin can still reach his NBA deal if he goes directly to the G-League. This is if the 32-year-old is willing to try his luck via that route.
This development comes not long after word got out that Lin and the Warriors were finalizing a deal for the coming NBA season. No less than Lin himself replied and said that the deal was far from finished since a decision has not been made.
The Warriors signed and waived Elijah Pemberton before 11 PM ET, league sources say, and will have his G League rights — Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) December 20, 2020
Now, it will all be up to Lin. He can opt to try the G-League route with hopes of making an appearance this NBA season. If not, he can continue to wait for another team to express interest in his services. So far, no other club has been heavily linked to the Harvard University standout.
Lin spent last season playing in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Coming off an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors, the 32-year-old did not receive interest from other teams.
Rather than be left idle, Lin played for the Beijing Ducks in the CBA. He put up a good performance and was one of the pillars for the Ducks.
However, that was not enough for Lin. He announced he was attempting to make an NBA return and exited the CBA. Despite knowing about his intentions, the Ducks still wanted him back.
The Beijing Ducks were trying to convince Lin to forget about his NBA dream and continue playing for the team this season before this incident with the Warriors cropped up.
The Ducks could see that yearning materialize soon. Lin is expected to exhaust all means to play for the 2020-21 season. If it ends up futile, one option is to return to the CBA. Hence, all the Beijing Ducks can do now is wait until Lin grows tired of waiting for some NBA team to call him up.
