Jeremy Lin puts ‘heart on the line’ and faith in his NBA dream
- Linsanity star tells fans in live Q&A about the toughest decision to leave China and ‘if there’s anything I want to be it’s authentic’
- ‘Now I’m an old man where I have to ice my knees and do all these stretches before and after my workouts,’ he says
“Not everything is always amazing and pretty and sexy in terms of my career or anybody’s career,” Jeremy Lin told his social media followers in an Instagram Live Q&A.
Speaking from his home in Palo Alto, California, Lin answered fan questions in a follow-up to the “sharing” he did on Taiwan’s GOOD TV and his own social media platforms on Saturday night.
“I felt like I needed to put my heart on the line and tell the story of what I went through,” Lin explained before answering questions.
“At my age, I just finished my 10th year of professional basketball, I’m like, hey look, if there’s anything I want to be it’s authentic. I want to say what’s on my mind, I want to share what I’m going through.
After a season in China with the Beijing Ducks, Lin has decided to take another shot at the NBA – a year on from not being offered any contracts during free agency and describing himself at “rock bottom”.
“This is the toughest decision of my life,” Lin answered when asked why he is chasing a return to the NBA, “because everything in China was so amazing and I love playing in the CBA and I love playing for the Beijing Ducks, and so it was so hard to leave but I have this NBA dream.
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“I felt like the thing that required more faith was to put everything that was comfortable that I knew, that I had, that I worked for, to put that aside and go all in for the NBA and so that’s what I’m doing.”
The 32-year-old committed Christian, whose sharing was titled “Faith Over Fear”, was also asked if his definition of success had changed.
“I definitely think my definition of success is slowly changing because, for me, I’m wired to achieve. That’s just who I am, that’s my personality. I want to do well. I want to do great.
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“Success at this point is definitely a lot more about the journey, how I go about the journey, because time flies. I felt like it was yesterday when I was 21 and graduated from college and now I’m an old man where I have to ice my knees and do all these stretches that I never had to do before and after all my workouts.
“Time flies. My career or my life is gonna go [clicks fingers] in the blink of an eye, so success nowadays is really enjoying the journey, doing things for the right reason, even taking moments throughout the day, throughout a workout, just to pause and embrace what’s going on.
“Even during a season if we’re on a bus ride, to be able to pause and be like, man I’m on a bus playing professional basketball. Of course, I still have very high bars and goals and those things … I’m not saying I’m not chasing those, but there are other forms of success as well.
“One version of success, I would say, is if I went for this – right now I’m going for this NBA comeback. Success to me would almost be like not worried about the result. That I could be so free that no matter what happens … that if I went through it in confidence, in fearlessness and if I really, really went for it, then it’s almost as if the result was secondary.
“I’m just going for it,” Lin said of his new mentality.
“I decided to share my insecurities and fears with the world. The response has been amazing and I love hearing all your stories. Thanks for the questions and hope my replies were encouraging. Love you all,” Lin captioned the video on Instagram.
