Many of you probably have not heard of Jeremy Lin. Frankly, he was an unknown to most of us until a few weeks ago.
It’s like he came out of nowhere and become a sensation. With this sudden rise in popularity, you know there’s an inspirational story behind it.
The Jeremy Lin story can teach us all about perseverance and passion.
Jeremy Shu-How Lin was born in Los Angeles. His parents emigrated from Taiwan.
Lin is the first American basketball player in the NBA who is of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He is also the first Harvard alum to play in the NBA since 1954.
As you can guess, being a Harvard grad, basketball is not the only option in his life. But basketball is his passion, and even though the odds are against him he never gave up pursuing his dream.
The fact is Asians in American professional sports are pretty rare, so you can imagine what challenges and obstacles he had to overcome, to not only fit in, but excel at something many feel he can’t.
Here are just some setbacks he had to overcome:
- Even though he was named first-team All-State and was Northern California Division II Player of the Year, he could not get a basketball scholarship from Cal, Stanford or UCLA. He end up going to Harvard without a scholarship.
- At Harvard, he set many records, including 21 wins, and his is the first player in the Ivy League history to achieve at least 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists, and 200 steals. Even with these impressive records he remained undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft.
- After signing a partially guaranteed 2-year deal with his hometown Golden State Warriors, Lin was eventually put in the inactive list.
- Three times during the season, Lin was assigned to the Warriors’ D-League affiliate (the minor league of basketball). Even though he felt been demoted, he chalked it up as a chance to learn and improve his game.
- In late 2011, Lin was waived by the Warriors on the first day of training camp to free up salary cap space to acquire another player.
- One week later, Lin was picked up by the Houston Rockets, but just 2 weeks later, Christmas Eve, he was waived again to clear payroll for another player.
- The New York Knicks picked up Lin, but was placed as a backup (third-string point guard).
- He was later assigned to the Knicks’ D-League. After an impressive win, he was recalled by the Knicks, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In his first 5 NBA games he scored 25, 28, 23, 38, and 20 points, respectively. The 38 points was against Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, who Lin out-scored.
Lin’s passion for the game overshadowed all the setbacks he encountered. His rise is pure hard work. determination and passion.
Here are just a sample of what people are saying about him:
The Associated Press – “the most surprising story in the NBA.”
Bloomberg News – “has already become the most famous [Asian American NBA player].” Knicks fans developed nicknames for him along with a new lexicon inspired by his name, Lin.
Time.com – “It’s Official: Linsanity Is for Real”.
Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson – “The excitement [Lin] has caused in [Madison Square] Garden, man, I hadn’t seen that in a long time
We can learn a lot from this incredible story. Even with all the setbacks, Lin did not give up. Basketball is his passion, and nothing was going to take that away from him. I’m sure he had many doubts about his path, but like all successful people, he kept going.
He remained humble, kept learning and improving, and never let his dream die.
We’ll be hearing a lot of him. As an Asian American, I’m truly proud, and he is an inspiration to all of us.