Jeremy Lin Retires From Basketball After 9-Year NBA Career

Former NBA guard Jeremy Lin announced Saturday on Instagram that he’s officially retiring as a basketball player following an extensive professional career.

“As athletes, we are always aware that the possibility of retirement is never far away,” Lin wrote in a statement. “I’ve spent my 15-year career knowing that one day I would have to walk away, and yet actually saying goodbye to basketball today has been the hardest decision I’ve ever made.

“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to compete against the fiercest competitors under the brightest lights and to challenge what the world thought was possible for someone who looks like me. I’ve lived out my wildest childhood dreams to play in front of fans all around the world. I will forever be the kid who felt fully alive every time I touched a basketball.”

 

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Lin, now 37, went undrafted in 2010 out of Harvard and signed a deal with the Golden State Warriors. However, he didn’t play much as a rookie, only making 29 appearances off the bench and averaging just 9.8 minutes per game.

The 6-foot-3 guard also played for the D-League (now known as the G League) in the 2010-11 season.

Lin was then cut by both Golden State and the Houston Rockets, who claimed him off waivers before the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season began.

Jeremy Lin Became A Breakout Star With Knicks

A couple days after being released by Houston, he inked a deal with the New York Knicks.

Although his time with New York was relatively brief, Lin was a major contributor during a 26-game stretch from February-March 2012, averaging 18.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 2.0 steals, and 34.2 minutes per contest and helping the team to turn its season around.

Lin led the Knicks to a 16-10 record during that span after starting the season at 8-15. New York finished the lockout-shortened season 36-30 and made the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed.

The phenomenon, dubbed “Linsanity,” took the NBA by storm that year and sparked a movement of pride in the Asian American community.

Lin also appeared on the cover of Time, GQ, and back-to-back issues of Sports Illustrated.

Lin Won An NBA Title With Raptors

As a restricted free agent in the 2012 offseason, Lin verbally agreed to sign a four-year, $28.8 million offer sheet with the Rockets, which New York declined to match.

Lin spent two seasons in Houston and bounced around the league over the following five years, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, and Toronto Raptors.

He won his lone NBA title as a role player with Toronto in 2019, averaging 7.0 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 18.8 minutes per contest in 23 games (three starts) with the team.

In 480 career NBA regular season games (221 starts) from 2010-19, he averaged 11.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 25.5 minutes per contest with a shooting line of .433/.342/.809.

Lin has mostly played in China and Taiwan over the past six years.