Jeremy Lin spent nine seasons in the NBA, and he is a bit perplexed about why he wasn’t in the league a bit longer. Lin appeared on Dwight Howard’s Above the Rim with DH 12 podcast, where he spoke about the end of his NBA career.
“I think a lot of it started with the knee injury,” Lin said. “And then basically after we won in 2019, I was like, all right, I’m getting back from my year-long traumatic injury, and I couldn’t get anything… It got to the point where I was begging teams, where I was asking them, can I just get a non-guaranteed training camp invite? I’ll prove myself. I could not even get a non-guaranteed training camp invite.
“I’m saying you have 15 guaranteed roster spots and another eight to 10 players who just come to training camp,” Lin continued. “And I was like, ‘I’ll show you. Just get me in the building, and I’ll show you that I’m fully recovered.’ And I couldn’t get that. That’s why I ended up going to the G League.”
Lin had suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee in October 2017 while playing for the Brooklyn Nets in their season opener. He’d miss the rest of the campaign, and the Nets would then trade him to the Atlanta Hawks in July 2018.
Lin wouldn’t be a Hawk for too long, as they waived him in February 2019. He’d be picked up by the Toronto Raptors days later, and they’d go on to win the NBA championship that year. The 2019 NBA Finals would prove to be the last time we saw Lin in an NBA game, though.
With no NBA opportunities coming his way in the following offseason, Lin headed overseas to play for the Beijing Ducks in China. He’d averaged 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game for the Ducks in 2019-20, and had hoped that would be enough to show he deserved another shot in the NBA.
Lin still wasn’t getting any opportunities, though, and had to settle for signing with the Golden State Warriors‘ G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, in January 2021. He’d average 19.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game for Santa Cruz in 2020-21, while shooting 50.5% from the field and 42.6% from beyond the arc. No NBA teams came calling, though, despite Lin putting up those numbers.
“I ended up doing really well,” Lin stated. “I was top 10 in points, top 10 in assists on the second-best team, and then basically, of the top 10, I was the only one who didn’t get even a 10-day or anything. So I was just like what’s happening? I’m proving myself. I’m averaging 20 and eight or whatever on one of the best teams and clearly showing that I can do it.
“But again, it’s just you don’t realize how fast it can change,” Lin added. “… So I won the championship, I went overseas, had a really good year, and then that still wasn’t enough. And so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll come to the G League and prove it.’ And so I came to the G League, and that was one of the craziest decisions too… Between on-court and off-court salary, I ended up giving up seven million to take a $30,000 salary in the G League.”
Lin, who had gone undrafted out of Harvard in 2010, doesn’t regret that decision, but he is disappointed he never got another opportunity. He finished his NBA career with averages of 11.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game.
Lin returned to Asia in 2021 and eventually retired in 2025 after spending two seasons with the New Taipei Kings in Taiwan. The 37-year-old revealed here that he always knew he’d finish his career in Asia.
“I didn’t expect to be out of the NBA at the time that I was,” Lin said. “Obviously, with the injury and everything, I was hoping I would be in the NBA for a little longer, but I always knew no matter what, at some point, I would finish my career in Asia.”
Lin’s NBA career may not have panned out the way he’d have imagined, but he’ll forever be remembered for that remarkable “Linsanity” run in 2012 with the New York Knicks. He captured the imagination of basketball fans around the world, and we haven’t seen anything quite like it since.
