Basketball/Linsanity Arrives in Taiwan To Look Back On Jeremy Lin's Basketball Career

Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who came to the public's attention during the "Linsanity" storm of 2012, once said that the glow of that moment also shaped the shadow of the next decade. But the craze, which stirred deep hopes in the Asian community in the United States, has not subsided until now.

Jeremy Lin was born in sunny California and grew up in Palo Alto, the San Francisco Bay Area. In an area about the size of Shilin, Taipei, home to the prestigious Stanford University and nearly 1,700 start-ups, the city's symbol is "success through failure".

Like many Asian kids in the competitive Silicon Valley region, Lin was exposed to 18 martial arts skills at an early age. Full of the spirit of basketball, Lin had to learn to play the piano as a child, until his father, Lin Jiming, and mother, Wu Xinxin, saw their son's talent and love for basketball and decided to support Lin in pursuing his dream.

From elementary school to high school, Lin practiced all the way through school, and his hard work was reflected in his performance on the court. He was captain of the Palo Alto High School basketball team that won the California Interscholastic League Division II championship, and he was named the Northern California Division II player of the year and an all-California first team selection.

But that hasn't made Lin's basketball life any easier than the average; When he graduated from high school and applied for basketball scholarships in anticipation, no school, including UC Berkeley and Stanford University in the Bay Area, said yes.

Lin eventually got into Harvard because it guaranteed him a spot on the basketball team. "The Harvard Kid" is what the world calls Jeremy Lin, but being a top student is not what he wants. Jeremy Lin has said that AsiAn-Americans are not considered to play basketball in the United States, and that he might have been able to apply for a basketball scholarship had he not been AsiAn-American.

On his way to the top of the NBA pyramid, Lin's skin color compounded his frustration.

When he entered the NBA draft out of college, Lin said that all the teams said about him were "preconceived notions about Asians." In the documentary 38 at the Garden, the actor Hasan Minhaj describes Asians as "short, passive, non-athletic" among some stereotypes in the United States.

But heaven didn't stop Lin's basketball dreams. Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob took a chance on Lin, only to see him relegated to the D-League three times. Lin stumbled, was released by the Warriors, moved to the Houston Rockets, and was suddenly given a shot at life by the point guard-hungry New York Knicks, whom he joined in 2011.

At that time, Lin was just a nobody in bustling New York City. Teammate Tyson Chandler thought he was "just here for an autograph" when he met him. Court guards didn't believe Lin was a player and even asked for his badge.

When Jeremy Lin was a rookie in New York, he slept on his brother's couch for six weeks. One day, when his brother's friend came to visit, he had to borrow a couch from his teammate Landry Fields. But his length was 70 centimeters longer than Fields' small couch. He woke up to a game that would change his life.

On February 4, 2012, Nick Lin scored a career-high 25 points off the bench against the Nets, and led Nick to a seven-game winning streak. The most crazy thing was that on February 10, when Nick played the Lakers at Madison Square Garden, the late NBA great Kobe Bryant interviewed him before the game. "I don't know Jeremy Lin," he said without hesitation. Lin immediately scored 38 points that night, a sensation in the United States.

In that February, the long-repressed AsiAn-American community cried, laughed, screamed and jumped as they watched Lin play. The shocking image of an Asian basketball player overcoming mental barriers, passing through iron walls and proving himself to the world on the court is more maddening and exciting than the win itself.

In the real life after his passion, Lin has played for different teams in the NBA, including the Beijing Shougang and Guangzhou Longshi of the Chinese Men's Basketball Association (CBA) between 2019 and 2022, before opting to end the season early.

Lin has made no secret of his desire for stability and the need to think about something "bigger than just playing."

In January, Lin was in his hometown in the Bay Area to promote the Linsanity documentary 38 at the Garden. Looking back on 2012, he confessed that for a long time he "didn't want to be a part of Linsanity," and that he had mixed "love-hate" feelings about that miraculous achievement, because many times, That halo has cast an unbreakable shadow over the rest of his life, and Lin probably wouldn't have agreed if the documentary hadn't focused on speaking up for the Asian community.

As an Asian, Lin may not be able to feel a complete sense of belonging in the United States or on the court in China. However, despite the ups and downs of school failure in the Bay Area and the strong support of his parents, Lin is still trying to break through the pain and struggle of Asian people in American society, and to feel the confidence and dignity that many people dream of.

In choosing Taiwan as his final stop, Lin was greeted by the brighter Kaohsiung sun, his younger brother, Lin Shuwei, and his passionate fans. For many Asian fans around the world, no matter where Lin is, they wish Hao can truly be himself