“Until we started playing, and we would scrape them, and they would be like ‘Oh, we’ll play with you.’ So it was definitely something we experienced on the court a lot growing up.”

Lin and his brother spoke live via the social media platform as part of a “121” series organised by the US-based Mental Health Coalition, a non-profit organisation. The two were joined by Dr Jenny Wang halfway through the discussion, who is a clinical psychologist and also Asian-American.

The three discussed a number of topics, most notably the rise of racism towards Asians related to Covid-19. Lin also opened up about his own mental health struggles at various points in his career, detailing how when he first broke into the NBA’s D League, he was an emotional wreck.

Jeremy Lin unsure of NBA future after G League season

During Lin’s rookie season (2010-11) he moved between the Golden State Warriors and their farm team, the Reno Bighorns, after receiving international media attention due to him being the first Asian-American to play in the NBA. Lin said the attention was difficult and really put a strain on him.

“I couldn’t sleep at night, even before games I couldn’t sleep. I was really struggling, there were times that I would just have no energy, I’d just be shaking and laying in bed. I really had so much anxiety. I remember we had an 11-hour bus ride and I was just wired the whole time. I was trying to sleep, I would fall asleep for 10 minutes and then just wake up.”

Lin said a big stabiliser was his brother Josh, who came to visit him in Reno, and the two went and played video games and gambled to help him get his mind off the high amount of scrutiny.

“I was struggling with so many different fears and I had the weight of feeling like I was the only Asian, or Asian-American, and that people were watching me. And this idea of having this dream and then if I don’t do well in the D League I’m going to lose it. So I was really going through a place where I had never been that vulnerable.”

A few years later Lin found himself once again in the media’s spotlight during the 2011-12 season when he rose to international stardom as the starting point guard for the New York Knicks, during a brief time now know as “Linsanity”. Lin’s celebrity status, at one point, was unparalleled.

“I was literally the most popular person on the planet. I was on the cover of Time magazine, I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Lin said. “I was the most Googled person that entire year. On the outside I was achieving, and I was playing really well, but mentally I was really in tough place.”

Once again Lin turned to his family, finding solace in a hotel room with them during All-Star weekend in Orlando, Florida.

“I just remember (when I got to the hotel room) I just rolled up into a ball and laid on you,” he said to his brother. “It was weird because I’m way bigger than you. But I was just so drained mentally from everything that was going on.”

Lin has spoken out lately around hate crimes and racism being directed towards Asians around the world, which some suggest stem from the unsubstantiated claim that Asian people are to blame for the spread of coronavirus.

He said dealing with racism is something he’s experienced his entire life, especially when he was playing basketball as a kid.

“By the time I was in sixth grade and playing at a more competitive level and travelling outside the Bay Area, there was a lot of racist comments, so that’s when I started to understand it a lot more.”