Jeremy Lin is ready to let the final bell sound in a remarkable 15 -year -old basketball race that captured the headlines worldwide and for a few weeks in 2012 made New York city to the epicenter of the basketball universe.
The NBA icon announced its retirement in an Instagram post on Saturday, writing that, although I knew the end would come, it was the “most difficult decision I have taken.”
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to compete against the fiercest competitors under the brightest lights and challenge what the world thought it was possible for someone who looked like me,” Lin wrote, 37. “I have lived my most wild childhood dreams to play in front of fans around the world. I will always be the boy who felt completely alive every time I touched a basketball.”
Lin arrived at the headlines around the world in the span of a few weeks when he took the New York Knicks to a streak of seven consecutive victories in 2012, his first year as a shipowner in the initial alignment of the team. “Linsanity” surpassed the Big Apple when his performance promoted the Knicks to the 2012 playoffs and made him an international phenomenon.
Following his outstanding stardom, Lin, then 23 years old, appeared on the covers of Sports Illustrated (for two consecutive weeks) and Time magazine, which appointed him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
“He has dissipated the idea that the Asian-American guards somehow could not hack him in the NBA, and that being a world-class athlete on the court is somehow disagree with being an excellent student outside the court,” Time wrote about his success.
Lin challenged stereotypes as the first person of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to reach the NBA. When he graduated from Harvard University in 2010, Taiwanese American athlete had become the first player in the history of the Ivy League to register at least 1,450 points throughout his university career.
After graduation, Lin was approved for the NBA draft in 2010 before signing with its hometown, Golden State Warriors as a free agent. After being cut by the Warriors and the Houston Rockets in 2011, Lin signed with the Knicks at the end of the year.
During the first weeks of 2012, Lin spent most of its games heating the bank. It was not until February that he was given the opportunity on the court to turn an abysmal season for the team.
In the apogee of his “Linsanity” career, he stirred even more audience fervor when he hit the triple winner against the Toronto Raptors with less than a remaining second on the clock. Lin also became the first NBA player to score at least 20 points and distribute seven assists in each of its first five openings.
Lin continued his NBA career with Tats on the Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and the Raptors, among others. While with the Raptors in 2019, it became the first Asian American player to win an NBA championship.
Later he took his career in basketball in the Pacific to the Beijing Ducks of China and Guangzhou Loong Lions, as well as the Kohsiung Steelers of Taiwan and the New Taipei Kings, where he finished his career this year as MVP of the Taiwan Professional Basketball League.
“Many people have sacrificed and poured on my trip, more than I could pay. Thank you all for believing in me, for walking with me, for celebrating my ups and downs and picking me into my minimums,” Lin wrote in his retirement publication. “This is a trip I never wanted to finish, but I know it’s the time. I will always miss playing basketball in front of everyone, but our time will go beyond playing. Here is what is ahead.”
