What Linsanity meant to Asians Around the World — 10 Year Anniversary
And How I Met the Global Sensation Before Linsanity
On Feb. 4th, 2012, in a game where it seemed like much is lost, Jeremy Lin checked in for the Knicks off the bench, who were playing the New Jersey Nets that day. It was the day he introduced himself to the world and the start of the global phenom that we now know as, Linsanity.
25 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists later, Jeremy Lin started an incredible 2 week run in which he would go on to average 22.3 points and 9 assists per game while leading the Knicks on a 7-game winning streak and going 10–3 in their next 13 games. Some of the highlights during this run included dropping 38 points against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, crossing up John Wall and throwing it down, and hitting a game-winning 3 pointer in Toronto at the buzzer. Even Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script. Even though the run came to an abrupt end after a season-ending injury, Linsanity would go on to inspire millions across the globe and has now become folklore amongst the Asian community.
However, just rewinding the tape back a couple of months in the summer of 2011, Jeremy Lin was only semi-famous within the Asian community as the first person of Taiwanese-descent to make it into the NBA and few even knew of his name outside the Asian community. A child of Taiwanese immigrants, Lin grew up in Palo Alto and went on to play college basketball at Harvard. Despite scoring high in his draft combine results, Lin went in drafted in 2010. Scouts would say he’s “deceptively quick”, or “doesn’t look tough/athletic.” It will be a stigma that Lin ends up fighting his whole career.
I still remember after that first game, Taiwanese newspapers had huge headlines about this kid whose parents were from Taiwan and how he was absolutely killing it in the NBA. As a 5’8” scrawny freshman in high school with big hoop dreams, I immediately started following Lin’s journey. The memory of our whole family staying up late or waking up super early to catch one of Lin’s games is still vivid today, 10 years later. The funny thing was, I actually met Jeremy just a little over 6 months ago.
The funny thing was, I actually met Jeremy just a little over 6 months ago.
It was the summer of 2011, and I happen to catch this ad in a magazine talking about the first NBA player of Taiwanese descent coming back to Taiwan and holding a summer basketball camp. Mind you, I had no idea who Jeremy Lin was at the time, but I thought this would be a fun opportunity to go try out for the camp with my friends. We ended up driving for 2 hours to get to an outdoor court, where several hundred middle and high school students like me went through passing, dribbling, and shooting drills. We were scored for how we performed in each drill and the total points were tallied by judges to determine who will make the cut. They were choosing 60 middle schoolers and 60 high schoolers and unfortunately, I got a call later that day that I only made it to the waitlist. My friend scored higher and was put on the waitlist too, so we thought the road to our hoop dreams had come to an end.
A couple of days later, my parents got a call from the association informing me that I actually made the last spot in the camp because a group of teens had to cancel due to their basketball tournament. My friend also made the cut for the same reason and off we went to the camp.
The first day of the camp, all 120 kids gathered in one of the nicest indoor gyms I’ve ever seen. Unlike the US, in Taiwan only high schools with an elite basketball team had the luxury of building an indoor basketball court. I nodded off during all the speeches but suddenly I felt the kids around me getting excited and as I look up, I saw Jeremy Lin descend down the stairs like some kind of Asian Thor. This memory is still vivid like it was yesterday because the first thought I had was, “Wow, this dude is hella jacked” but then he greeted us with such a genuine and warm smile. I think everybody just instantly like him from that moment on. Surprisingly, at the time, Jeremy spoke very limited Chinese and had a translator the whole time during the camp. I still remember how shocked I was when I saw him on TV years later speaking perfect Chinese. He must have put in a ton of work behind the scenes, as he has done all his life to try to prove he belonged in the NBA.
We went through various drills and scrimmages in the next couple of days and unfortunately for us, Jeremy had a minor knee injury at the time that prevented him from playing in games with us. Regardless, he was the only staff member that sat on the floor and ate Taiwanese bento boxes with us during lunch. I was able to ask him about his experience at Harvard and the NBA, and his experience guarding MVP Derrick Rose, who is my favorite player of all time. Jeremy was radiant and caring and answered every single question from us, laughing with us like a kid.
On the last day of camp, Jeremy played a scrimmage with selected campers and it was eye-opening to say the least to see how good an NBA player really is. Afterwards, we lined up to get pictures with him and he signed a photo for every single kid, as well as any parents who asked for a picture. Throughout the whole weekend, I never once heard Jeremy say no to a request from a kid, nor did I ever see the smile leave his face. I’m sure every single one of us left camp idolizing him, and none of us knew Linsanity would hit the world like a storm just a couple of months later.
Fast-forward 10 years later, after a tumultous NBA ride that saw him with 6 teams in 7 years (winning a championship in the process with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, becoming the first Asian American to ever do so), Jeremy Lin is now playing for the Beijing Ducks amongst the ongoing pandemic. He made his final attempt to getting a chance in the NBA again while playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors. Although his attempt proved to be futile, Jeremy still posted 19.8 points, 6.4 assists with a 50–42–88 shooting split through 9 games. An NBA champion, he fought hard to find his way back to the NBA when he was called “Corona Virus” by a fellow player in a G-league game. The incident was eventually resolved privately, but it shed light on how even being a successful professional athlete doesn’t protect you from ignorant verbal assaults.
Throughout the pandemic, stats have shown a drastic spike of hate crimes and assaults against Asian Americans. On top of verbal assaults, there have been numerous cases involving unprovoked physical altercations that lead to serious injuries and even death. Here are just a few:
- 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, a Thai immigrant, died after being brutally shoved to the ground in San Francisco in January of 2021
- 8 women were fatally shot, 6 of them Asian, across 3 massage parlors in Atlanta when a lone shooter went on a shooting spree in March of 2021
- 61-year-old Chinese immigrant, Yao Pan Ma was brutally attacked and kicked repeatedly in the head in Harlem, NY while collecting bottles and cans to survive having just lost his job during the pandemic. He eventually succumbed to his injuries and died of cerebral hemorrhage in December of 2021
- 40-year-old Michelle Go was shoved from the platform in a New York subway station that led to her death in January of 2022
- 35-year-old Christina Lee was fatally stabbed in her apartment after being followed home after a night out with her friends in February of 2022
The list goes on and this is just the tip of the iceberg, with studies finding that there has been a 300% spike in anti-asian hate crimes reported across the country. The invisibility of the Asian American experience as well as the silence for these attacks from the general population is deafening. Now more than ever, Asian Americans yearn to be heard and look for prominent figures to speak out. 10 years removed from Linsanity, Jeremy Lin has found peace representing the Asian community and has spoken out numerous times against not just the rise of anti-asian hate crimes, but also a range of social justice issues. He wrote this moving article after the Atlanta spa shooting spree occurred to call for more attention on the discrimination Asian Americans have faced in this country.
We, as a collective community, must keep fighting for our voices to be heard and to remind everyone that we, Asian Americans, are American and do belong.
