How Jeremy Lin’s mom used her life savings to fund his NBA dreams
By Bryan Ke
Jeremy Lin achieved his basketball dream with the help of his mother, Shirley, who used her life savings to support him for two years while he pursued his passion.
Key points:
- Lin and Shirley looked back at the Taiwanese American basketball star’s beginnings for an episode of his “A Convo with…” podcast, uploaded to YouTube on March 13.
What they’re saying:
- The mother-and-son duo recalled how Lin’s mother used her 401(k) so he could start his NBA draft training. As part of the condition, Shirley told Lin before his training that he had two years to pursue his dreams, and if it was “not working out,” then he needed to “call it quits.”
- Lin and his parents used the money for Lin’s food during his training and to cover coaching fees. The basketball star admitted that he never asked questions at the time and only learned about his mother’s sacrifice seven years after he made it into the NBA.
- “Seven years after making the NBA, where I was like, ‘Wow, you really went down to, like, you gave out your retirement fund for me to be able to chase my dream.’” He noted how he appreciated what his mother did, which he called the “ultimate sacrifice story.”
NBA career:
- Lin’s NBA career spanned nine seasons across eight teams, beginning with the Golden State Warriors during the 2010-11 season and ending with the Toronto Raptors, where he won a championship ring in the 2018-19 season.
- He reached his career peak while playing for the New York Knicks in the 2011-12 season, during which the Knicks dominated their games with Lin taking charge. The astonishing run continued, giving birth to what is now known as the “Linsanity” era.
- In 2022, HBO released the short documentary “38 at the Garden,” chronicling Lin’s rise to fame and Linsanity. The documentary short earned two Sports Emmy Awards nominations and won for outstanding short documentary on May 22, 2023.
Current whereabouts:
- Lin moved to the Chinese Basketball Association in 2019 after his time in the NBA, where he played for nine seasons.
- Lin, 35, has played in the P.League+ since he moved to Taiwan in 2022. He currently plays alongside his younger brother Joseph on the New Taipei Kings.
- After a plantar fascia foot injury in January, Lin returned to the court on Saturday during a game against the Formosa Dreamers. He received a five-game suspension in March after undergoing blood treatment for the lingering injury.
- The New Taipei Kings reportedly did not know the treatment, known as intravenous laser irradiation of blood (ILIB), was against the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
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