Jeremy Lin’s NBA dream should quickly become reality
- NBA champion hopes to return to league after a season in China with Beijing Ducks a year on from being overlooked in free agency
- The 32-year-old returned to form in the Chinese Basketball Association and should be snapped up by NBA franchises
Linsanity, of course, was that brief period in 2012 where Lin was catapulted into global superstardom at the New York Knicks making headlines around the world for his game-winning performances.
Lighting up the Madison Square Garden scoreboard was not what was expected of a Harvard graduate who had gone undrafted and then made little impact at either the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets, let alone that Lin was Asian-American.
Lin defied all expectations and in doing so created new ones for his career, ones that have not yet been met through serious injury, ill fits with teams and possibly some good old fashioned prejudice.
Sure, he has an NBA ring from his blink-and-you’ll-miss it stint with the Toronto Raptors last summer but he was only on court for the final seconds of the last game of the Finals.
What was meant to be a high point ended up being the lowest. Lin was “rock bottom” after being let go by the Raptors and then overlooked during NBA free agency. There were no offers for him and he was forced to look elsewhere to continue his career.
He chose China, joining the Beijing Ducks and setting about becoming the baller he has shown all too few glimpses of in the years following Linsanity. He is a better player for the experience and he said he found himself again in the CBA.
Lin dropped 40 points in his first Ducks outing last preseason and hit a regular season high of 38 against the Beijing Royal Fighters in the penultimate game of the regular season. His regular season averages were decent – 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists – then he took the team to the CBA play-off semi-finals.
The season ended with Lin’s missed buzzer beater failing to force OT in the deciding game but he didn’t duck the shot.
New York, LA or the Bay – where could Jeremy Lin make NBA return?
“Every hooper knows, you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take,” Jeremy Lin wrote on Instagram after the play-off run ended, looking back on his first season in China. ” You also miss 100 per cent of the dreams you don’t chase.”
Now Lin is chasing the NBA dream again.
“In the end, although Shougang has treated me incredibly well … giving me everything I wanted, in the end, I feel that I still have NBA dreams. I still have time to play and I have to chase this,” he told his Weibo followers last week as he announced his departure from Beijing.
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Jeremy Lin says he has realised his childhood dream in China
They should probably be chasing him. Lin, a player that Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce called “the stabiliser” in a 2018 interview with The Athletic, hardly represents a gamble.
It was odd that no NBA team picked him up last summer. A year on, after his season in China, Lin should be a no-brainer for any GM and teams should be fighting over him. Six are already reported to be in contact with his agent about a spot on their rosters.
Aside from his NBA pedigree, Lin has answered questions over his injury record, which sat him out of most of his time at the Brooklyn Nets, by seeing out a whole season in China. Not only that but Lin was put through the wringer by some overzealous defending in the CBA from week one to the very end.
‘I’m not chasing the shadow of Linsanity,’ says Lin on NBA hopes
He’s shed that Mr Glass tag and also answered questions over his defending – being named among the top five in the league – while he has also been working on his game since returning to the US, shooting threes in the gym.
There are plenty of possible feel-good stories for his former teams – and there are plenty of them to be fair – not to mention that it would be good PR in the PRC, as Lin is one of the most popular players in China.
Several other players have made the journey back to the NBA from China and some of them are not as good as Lin.
Michael Beasley and Jimmer Fredette have both been given several second chances by NBA teams, as has Ty Lawson. Lin has had far better NBA careers than both and deserves another shot.
Haters, such as the rappers Black Soprano Family in their song It’s Over, may argue that he was only “good for a season”, but Lin deserves a chance to prove them all wrong.
Not that vengeance is his motivation.
Jeremy Lin still dreams of NBA, will not return to China
“This isn‘t about chasing the shadow of Linsanity,” Lin wrote. “Or proving anyone right or wrong. Or about money, fame, reputation or power.”
It might be about any of that but it would still be nice.
