Jeremy Lin reflects on ‘hostile relationship with Linsanity’ and making peace with phenomenon born 10 years ago on this day
- The 33-year-old calls his NBA peak a ‘lightning in a bottle’ moment and continues to be ‘shocked’ at its impact on Asian-American culture
- ‘As I went through Linsanity … I started to see the world for what it is, which is a very broken world with a lot of injustice, racism and stereotyping’ Lin says
On February 10, 2012, an undrafted 23-year-old Taiwanese -American NBA rookie had the whole world on the edge of their seats as he dominated Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers.
Filling in for a struggling New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin would proceed to go on a legendary two-week tear of the postseason finals in what will forever go down as the “Linsanity” era, a phenomenon that transcended sports.
Still a largely unknown point guard, Lin had announced himself six days earlier after dropping 25 points, seven assists and five rebounds against the New Jersey Nets, to give the Knicks a rare win having lost 11 of their previous 13 games.
A couple of days later, he posted 28 points and eight assists against the Utah Jazz, then dominated the Washington Wizards to go three for three.
Heads had turned as the Harvard University graduate’s 109 points across his opening four starts was 10 more than Michael Jordan.
But fans marked the unofficial beginning of “Linsanity” in a 38-point bonanza against Bryant’s Lakers.
Jeremy Lin’s journey from undrafted rookie to NBA champion via ‘Linsanity’
Lin’s game-winning three against the Toronto Raptors on Valentine’s Day 2011 is widely considered “peak Linsanity”, as he helped the perennial butt-of-jokes Knicks win 10 of 13 games.
The end of a scintillating run to the All-Star break was marked the following month, as coach Mike D’Antoni resigned and star Carmelo Anthony returned from injury.
By the end of March, Lin was struggling for form and would undergo surgery on his meniscus. He did not play for the Knicks again, finishing a total of 35 games with 14.6 points and 6.2 assists.
“How fast does 10 years go by?” Lin, now 33, wrote on Instagram last week.
“I almost don’t remember what it was like to be that wide-eyed 23-year-old, pivoting overnight from sleeping on [teammate Landry Field’s] couch, worried about being fired to suddenly being recognised everywhere and having my name coined into a term like Linsanity.
“How unreal it is when New York City lights up in excitement. How special it is to see people from so many backgrounds come together to root for us. How meaningful it was to make a statement and break a barrier for the Asian-American community. All of these things are why it felt like lightning in a bottle.”
“A very broken world”
Lin’s impact on the Asian-American community and story of the “underdog” can still be felt today. He was but only the fourth Asian-American to make the NBA at the time, the first of Taiwanese heritage.
That the same man who was avoided unanimously in the 2010 NBA draft, immediately demoted to the D-League after eventually signing with the Golden State Warriors – before being cut – would go on to produce one of the sport’s most memorable fortnight in history is the stuff of fables.
Lin went from sleeping on his teammate’s couch and being stereotypically overlooked for his “lack of athleticism”, to becoming a household name with his face plastered on every magazine cover.
“I was always immediately identified as being different,” he told The Ringer.
“People were gunning for me because they thought I sucked, or because they didn’t want to be embarrassed by somebody that looked like me.
“My whole life, I was always the Asian, and I was just so tired of that. I wanted to be recognised for my skills and for what I was bringing to the court.
“As I went through Linsanity and more things, I started to see the world for what it is, which is a very broken world with a lot of injustice, with a lot of racism and a lot of stereotyping.
“And I started to realise, this is not something I should be running from. This is something that I need to be stepping into.”
“Back against the wall”
Even more miraculous is that Lin was right on the brink of being cut from the NBA at the time. Contract deadlines were days away, as he described to The Ringer.
“My back was against the wall,” he said.
“That was going to be it for me. My agent had actually called before the game and said, ‘If you don’t play well, tonight will probably be your last game in the NBA’.
“The amount of anxiety, pressure, embarrassment that I was facing, if I would finally make it to the NBA and then just completely underperform and fizzle out. That would have been a really, really tough pill to swallow.”
But to call Lin a flash in the pan would be doing him a huge injustice. His form was patchy after signing with the Houston Rockets the same summer, but by the year-end he would be scoring 22 points against his former team.
Mamba fever? Linsanity? Sotto dreams of China success
He tallied doubled figures in 19 of his final 23 games for the Rockets, just as talisman James Harden was taking the reigns.
Moves to the Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets were less impressive, with injuries and personal issued hampering a return to his offensive best.
Many also forget that Lin, a member of the Raptors’ 2019 NBA Championship-winning contingent, capped his nine years in the notoriously cutthroat league with a ring – the first Asian-American to do so.
“Ashamed to even walk outside”
“I was literally the most popular person, the most popular person, on the planet,” he said.
“I had everything going for me. I had so much success. I was playing out of my mind and it was so far above and beyond anything I could have dreamed of.
“But the next few years after that I started to really experience a lot of let downs, a lot of failure and it got to the point where I was so ashamed to even walk outside, I didn’t even want to leave my house, I didn’t want to go on my social media, I didn’t want to go on ESPN.”
With literally millions of fans in China cheering at his every move, Lin could easily have stayed in the Chinese Basketball Association after signing in the 2019-20 season.
Tearful Jeremy Lin says he ‘couldn’t breathe’ in CBA games
“This isn’t about chasing the shadow of Linsanity,” he wrote to Chinese fans on social media platform Weibo.
“Or proving anyone right or wrong. Or about money, fame, reputation or power.”
“Just being able to be Jeremy Lin”
Though his preseason stint with the Warriors’ G-League affiliate Santa Cruz was not enough to attract any NBA teams, Lin returned to the Ducks with no regrets – the same attitude which he approaches everything in life.
“There’s a different weight to it now,” Lin told The Ringer.
“As athletes, we need to have a short memory. If we only focus on the past, we can’t be ready for what’s coming in the future.
“I had a pretty hostile relationship with the word ‘Linsanity’ for the first few years. It felt like I had to validate my identity as a person. And it felt like I had to be this phenomenon instead of just being able to be Jeremy Lin, the person who happens to play basketball and is really good at it.
“I’ve always been ingrained to just move on to the next thing. But over time, I assumed that people would kind of forget about Linsanity and stop talking about it, but that’s just really not the case.
“This story, it really touched people deeply. And I’m shocked at that. I continue to be shocked at that.”
