Jeremy Lin, who took the NBA by storm in 2012 during a stretch of games for the New York Knicks that was dubbed “Linsanity,” has announced his retirement from professional basketball.
Lin, who most recently has been playing professionally in Taiwan, made the announcement via Instagram on Saturday night.
“As athletes, we are always aware that the possibility of retirement is never far away,” he wrote. “I’ve spent my 15 year career knowing that one day I would have to walk away, and yet actually saying goodbye to basketball today has been the hardest decision I’ve ever made.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to compete against the fiercest competitors under the brightest lights and to challenge what the world thought was possible for someone who looks like me. I’ve lived out my wildest childhood dreams to play in front of fans all around the world. I will forever be the kid who felt fully alive everytime I touched a basketball.”
Lin, 37, is coming off back-to-back championships with the New Taipei Kings. Last season, he was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s MVP during its inaugural season and followed that up with Finals MVP honors during New Taipei Kings’ championship run.
Before playing in China and Taiwan, Lin spent nine seasons in the NBA with eight franchises after going undrafted out of Harvard, where he made the team as a walk-on.
Lin made his mark with the Knicks in 2012. Then-coach Mike D’Antoni inserted him into the lineup that February when Carmelo Anthony was sidelined, and Lin led New York to a seven-game win streak.
One of the highlights of “Linsanity,” during which Lin scored at least 20 points in nine of 10 games, was a 38-point, 7-assist effort in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers as he outscored Kobe Bryant, who had 34 points in the game. Lin averaged 14.6 points and 6.2 assists in 35 games that season for New York.
He finished his NBA career with averages of 11.6 points and 4.3 assists in 480 games for the Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors. He won an NBA championship with the Raptors in 2019, his final NBA season.
