Jeremy Lin is heading to Beijing, following a frustrating offseason for the popular basketball star.
On Tuesday, the 31-year-old athlete announced via Instagram that he has signed with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association.
“To challenge stereotypes, make history, rep Asians at the NBA level and pave the path as others have done for me has been an absolute privilege,” he wrote. “I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for each person who has been with me each step of the way.”
Coming off an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, Lin shed tears during a July speech in Taiwan for GOOD TV, where he openly spoke about how the league “has given up” on him as he navigated through free agency.
“Every year it gets harder,” said Lin, whose parents emigrated from Taiwan. “In English there’s a saying, it says, ‘Once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up,’ but rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me.
“And so free agency has been tough because I feel like the NBA has kind of given up on me. And I always knew that if I gave anybody a reason to doubt, that they would.”
The heartfelt moment was tough to watch, especially for the mass supporters of the Asian athlete who rose to prominence in 2012 when he carried the New York Knicks into a playoff position. The run, and his unexpected stardom, garnered attention from around the world.
Now, having been in limited roles and struggling to stay healthy, Lin is stepping away from the NBA where he played on eight different organizations — never spending more than two successive seasons with the same franchise.
His latest, and potentially last, stint in the NBA came with the Raptors, who signed him in February after he was bought out by the Atlanta Hawks. During their championship run, he averaged 1.1 points in 3.4 minutes per game, making only eight appearance during the playoffs.
The CBA season ends in March, with players sometimes signing with an NBA team for the final stretch of the season.
