Jeremy Lin: Every Year It Gets Harder

Jeremy Lin might just be the most disenfranchised NBA champion in the history of basketball. 

Jeremy Lin (30), won the championship with the Toronto Raptors last season after joining the team midseason. 

However, Jeremy Lin only averaged 3.4 minutes in eight playoff appearances. He has averaged 11.6 and 4.3 assists over his career. He has not started more than three games in a season since 2016-2017 with the Brooklyn Nets. 

As well as that, he has played for eight different NBA teams in nine seasons. For such a player, a post-NBA-championship-winning summer ought to be a triumphant one.

Not for Lin, though, as the free agent point guard struggles to find a new team for next season.

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“Every year it gets harder,” Lin said.

“In English there’s a saying and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up,” he said.

“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.”

Every championship team has players like Lin. The ones who were there, but only on the outskirts. The non-champion champions, if you will. For such players, the achievement must feel bittersweet, as it does for Lin:

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“After the season I had to get ready for this Asia trip and it was the last thing I wanted to do,” Lin said. 

“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.”