Although veteran point guard Jeremy Lin is now an NBA champion after a successful season with Toronto Raptors, he still doesn’t have a job in the league at the moment. Lin is one of the few prominent free agents left on the market and there still no indication that he might continue his NBA story in 2019/20 season.
Seeing NBA teams signing free agents left and right while passing up on him isn’t easy for Lin. This is something that the 30-year-old didn’t hide during a motivational speech he recently delivered on one Taiwanese TV station.
“Every year it gets harder,” – said Lin about his efforts to remain in the NBA.
“In English there’s a saying and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up,”- he added. “But rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me. So, free agency has been tough. Because I feel like in some ways the NBA’s kind of given up on me.”
Jeremy Lin played 20 games with the Raptors in the past regular season, averaging 7.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. In the playoffs, however, he made only eight appearances while playing just 3.4 minutes per game.
This is the reason why Lin doesn’t think he really earned the NBA ring he got after the Raptors won the title.
“After the season I had to get ready for this Asia trip and it was the last thing I wanted to do,” – Lin explained. “Because I knew for six weeks I would have to just put on a smile. I would have to talk about a championship that I don’t feel like I really earned. I would have to talk about a [basketball] future I don’t know if I want to have. And honestly it’s just embarrassing. It’s tough.”
In case that Lin doesn’t manage to land another gig in the NBA, he will most likely head to Europe where CSKA is reportedly interested in his services.
