Jeremy Lin: No One Sees Kobe’s Human Side

Even when you know this is Jeremy Lin’s fifth season, it is still hard to believe. Name another player who began his career with such a meager outlook, climbed incredibly high, fell back to earth, only to be resurrected again in Los Angeles. Even Jeremy Lin admits it is surreal.

Oct 6, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Jeremy Lin (17) takes a foul shot during the second half against the Denver Nuggets at Valley View Casino Center. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Interviewed by Jamie Maggio on Time Warner SportsNet, the Lakers point guard talked about his whirlwind. “I learned the fleeting satisfaction of success. How bad you want it and then when you finally have it how empty you can feel through it. Things in this life come and go. There are a lot of ups and downs. I had been in a down period and I shot up to such a high level. I saw my time in Houston coming back down. I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum.”

Born in Torrance but raised in Palo Alto, Jeremy Lin is a Californian through and through. After high school his dream was to stay in the state for college. “I really wanted to stay in California”, he admitted. Stanford was his #1 choice but he would have been happy to play at UCLA or Cal. But the only teams that recruited him were Brown and Harvard. Brown dropped out of the recruiting process which left only Harvard.

In hindsight, Harvard was the best thing to happen to Jeremy Lin. It allowed him to develop at his pace without the intense scrutiny that latches onto a player in a major conference. But the Stanford rejection still stung. “I had a chip on my shoulder.” Then, he realized he was hurting himself by continuing to maintain a grudge. His faith led him to the kind of reflection where you admit there are things you cannot control. So now Jeremy Lin says, “I try to play for God.”

Linsanity is a peculiar subject. In a way it takes on the structure of a myth all of these years later. It was a tremendous experience but the substance of it did not last. It was not “eternally fulfilling” he conceded. Perhaps it was because it was something he could never have dreamed up. “My rookie year and going through the whole D-league circuit was tough and getting cut twice in two weeks was pretty tough.” How does one imagine playing for the Reno Big Horns and then half a year later going to China and being swarmed by fans to the point that Jeremy Lin was afraid he may not make it out of the mob alive?

There is a dreamy quality to what happened to him for one month in New York. Lin appreciates when people come up to him and talk about what Linsanity meant to them, the story of the ordinary man who becomes a hero. “But”, he was quick to admit, “I don’t want to live in the shadow of that for the rest of my career. Hopefully, by the time my career is done, there is something cooler to talk about besides Linsanity.”

The truth is, the emphasis on Linsanity means his career has never evolved, he has never grown as an athlete. No one wants to be remembered for something they did at 24. That is the Jeremy Lin paradox. Linsanity follows behind him. It is his ghost.

But Linsanity is also a sober reminder of why you should never entertain the idea of quitting. You never know what is waiting around the corner. If Jeremy Lin had been cut by the Knicks he would have taken time off. He refused to be a professional D-league player. Even as he possesses a degree in Economics, he has always had an interest in non-profits, especially charities that focus on underserved children. When he was at Palo Alto High School some of his teammates were from East Palo Alto, a tough part of town. Lin was empathic to their struggles. His foundation focuses on helping children with similar backgrounds. It is what he would have done, but on a smaller scale, had Linsanity never happened to him.

Oct 6, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Jeremy Lin (17) reacts during the second half against the Denver Nuggets at Valley View Casino Center. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

But it did happen to him. Once it was over, after that crazy, crazy month, in the off season, to everyone’s surprise, the team that overpays just about everyone, refused to match the Houston Rockets deal that was on the table. Lin wanted to stay in New York.

“What I want isn’t usually what is best for me. Stanford is an example. I think New York was a blessing in disguise I didn’t go back.”

He went to Houston and his two years there were two years that he wished he could somehow change. But he admits, “Houston happened for a reason. I learned so much as a person and as a player in Houston. It hasn’t come with all the improvements and better stats but it’s made me a more complete player.”

The contract weighed on him that first year. The impression was he had to live up to it and so he put pressure on himself instead of just playing the game his way. Here he was, a phenomenon, a person who made an entire city revere him. Now, he was being asked to repeat it, to convince the world it was not an illusion. “The smaller market of Houston helped not being in a fishbowl.”

But what hurt was the lack of commitment to let Jeremy Lin be Jeremy Lin. Stylistically, his game didn’t mesh with James Harden who is a ball centric guard. Rarely was Lin given the ball and asked to run the offense.

As difficult as Houston was, Jeremy Lin was still part of a team that was trying to build something, that believed in one another. “Dwight was tremendous to me, very nice, very generous.”

Naturally, Kobe Bryant is a different personality and Lin accepts and embraces the uniqueness. “My relationship with Kobe is different. He’s teaching me. He’s accomplished more (than Dwight Howard). He’s been taking me under his wing and trying to teach me everything he can. It’s a different dynamic.”

In their short time together his admiration of Kobe centers around Kobe’s attention to detail. “He’s wired differently. The things he thinks about, the way he understands the game, you understand he’s on a different level. People don’t see the human side of who he is. When he’s not on the court, he’s down to earth in a lot of ways.”

That’s an important value to Lin: humility. Of his inclusion on the short list of Asian-Americans who played in the NBA, Jeremy Lin is proud. But he knows he can’t be the flag bearer so many expect him to be. “I can’t change everything but if I can help tweak or chop down stereotypes I’d be pretty happy with that. My responsibility is to try my best to be myself.”

That self, once upon a time, was with the Reno Big Horns, trying to make the Golden State Warriors roster. Now look at him. “I am fortunate to be here. I’d like to win a championship”, he said. “That would be pretty sweet.”

As if catching himself, Jeremy Lin thought about what he just said. “It’s very easy to dream about but very hard to accomplish.”