Taipei, Sept. 6 (CNA) Former NBA star Jeremy Lin (林書豪) has signed with the Guangzhou Long Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) after months of speculation that he might relocate to Taiwan.
Lin made the announcement on his Instagram account Monday in a post with photos of him in the club’s jersey and T-shirt and the caption “The journey continues! Still feel like a kid getting to live out my basketball dreams.”
The signing means the Taiwanese-American point guard will play a third consecutive season in the CBA after spending two seasons with the Beijing Ducks.
Lin’s production with the Ducks fell in the 2021-2022 when he averaged 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists, down from 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in 39 games in the 2019-2020 season.
His floor time also shrank from an average of 32.1 minutes over 39 games to just 22 minutes over 23 games, and with Lin becoming a free agent this offseason, Taiwanese basketball fans wondered if the former NBA sensation might play professionally in Taiwan.
Lin set the NBA and Taiwan on fire in February of 2012 when he drained 38 points against Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden to ignite an improbable run for the New York Knicks and kickstart a cultural phenomenon.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Lin has maintained his popularity in Taiwan since then, and the possibility of him playing in one of Taiwan’s two professional basketball leagues had general managers angling to get him on their teams.
The Kaohsiung Steelers of the P. LEAGUE+ openly stated that they wanted to enlist Lin for the P. LEAGUE+’s 2022-2023 season, while the New Taipei Kings signed Lin’s younger brother Joseph Lin (林書緯) in what many speculated was designed to attract Jeremy Lin .
“If you ask any general manager in this league, ‘Are you trying to get Jeremy?’ and the answer is ‘no,’ then there are two possibilities. One is that he’s lying, the second is that he’s going to get fired,” Steelers General Manager Kenny Kao (高景炎) told CNA in July.
Those hopes have now been dashed, however, with the CBA’s 2022-2023 season set to open on Oct. 10.
Lin will team up with Long Lions Taiwanese guard Ray Chen (陳盈駿) for the Guangzhou team.