“It’s been a very painful one. It’s been really sad the last five, six, seven games,” Lin said after the Ducks’ 115-90 win over Shanxi Loongs, their third win in a row after a patchy campaign.

Lin finished with a respectable 20 points, six rebounds and six assists. But it came after a rather dry spell of five games, including scoring no points and losing five turnovers in 15 minutes against Zhejiang Lions earlier in the month.

The Taiwanese-American is averaging 13.1 points a game after 10 appearances in the new season, a fall from his 22.3 average in 2019-20.

“I’ve been feeling very tired – like I couldn’t breathe – so for me, going down this path might seem more difficult than others. But from my performance, I can feel my body is getting back to normal,” he said.

“I’m getting emotional because 2020 wasn’t an easy year, and I’m thankful for every person who has helped to get me to where I am.”

Asked to expand on what he had been through, Lin said “I don’t want to cry” and struggled to speak, taking a step back to compose himself.

“[Last year] was not only tough because of the pandemic – there were other things off the court. It was really so hard, but I slowly found my conditioning,” he said.

“Actually it’s only now that I can express all my emotions because I’m here. The last few games, I really wasn’t myself and my body wasn’t there.”

“It’s not about effort. My body was hurt, my heart was hurt,” Lin added.

The Ducks sit in ninth place in the league after losing 126-114 to Tianjin Ronggang on Thursday. Lin scored 21 points, and had five rebounds and four assists.