NEW YORK — Thirteen years after captivating Knicks fans with his iconic “Linsanity” run, NBA veteran Jeremy Lin announced that he is retiring from professional basketball over the weekend.
In February 2012, Lin erupted onto the scene with 25 points off the bench against the Nets, then averaged nearly 25 points per game over the next 10 contests — including a 38-point showcase against the Lakers, where he outdueled the late, great Kobe Bryant.
Lin’s incredible play in New York stunned the basketball world— himself included. “I’d be a huge liar if I told myself, ‘I knew I could do that...’ Let’s just be honest. I had no idea I could play like that. It was as amazing to me as it was to everybody else,” he admitted in an interview reflecting on that magical stretch.
Though Lin never recaptured the sustained success of Linsanity, he retires with 5,567 points across 480 NBA games, having also played for the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, and Toronto Raptors—where he earned an NBA championship ring in 2019 as a role player.
While international stars of Asian descent such as Yao Ming had already left their mark on the NBA, Lin is often regarded as the first Asian American player to achieve significant success in the league — becoming a role model for a generation of young players who looked up to him.
Lin went on to play overseas in both the Chinese Basketball Association and the Taiwan Professional Basketball League between 2019 and 2025, using his NBA credentials to help grow the game overseas.
An alumnus of Harvard University, Lin also founded JLIN LLC, “a mission-driven firm focused on using capital for good through philanthropy and impact investing, and Angel Investing in other startups and entrepreneurial projects.”
“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 signed off his retirement message with.
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