After getting cast out by the NBA and, later, having his comeback attempt in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) torpedoed by a nasty bout with COVID-19, former New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin took his talents to Taiwan in an attempt to revive his hardwood career.
Flash forward to now and the baller who brought Linsanity to the Big Apple back in 2012 looks to have inspired a whole new craze in the P. League+ (PLG).
Lin signed on the dotted line with the PLG’s Kaohsiung Steelers back in February and, in short order, the team was transformed both on the court and off as both a basketball franchise and entertainment entity.
Before his arrival, Kaohsiung was languishing at the bottom of the standings with a 9-20 record. Since then, though, the club is 7-4 (and 6-3 in games that Lin has actually played in). With just 10 games remaining, a playoff berth may not be in the cards, but interest in the Steelers’ comings and goings is at an all-time high.
Meanwhile, Lin has looked a lot like the guy who became the Knicks’ unlikeliest legend.
Former Knicks Star Jeremy Lin Is Breaking Records in Taiwan’s P. League+
Per the CNA’s Focus Taiwan, Kaohsiung was averaging a league-worst 34,706 viewers per game for its YouTube livestream broadcasts before Lin entered the fray. Between February 12 and March 25, however, that number more than doubled to 74,559 or 31% greater viewership than what the No. 2 team averaged over the same span.
That uptick has mirrored Lin’s own resurgence running point for his new squad.
After averaging just 6.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists across seven forgettable games with the CBA’s Guangzhou Loong Lions, Lin is logging some serious numbers in his new digs. As of this writing, the 34-year-old is putting up 24.4 points, 9.0 assists, 8.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals in a whopping 41.5 minutes nightly for the Steelers.
Not only that — he’s breaking individual records.
In his Taiwanese debut, Lin tied the PLG’s single-game assist record with 13 dimes against the Formosa Dreamers. He went on to break that record with a 15-assist effort against the Taoyuan Pilots on March 26, then broke it again with 16 assists versus the Dreamers on April 2.
Lin wasn’t interested in hyping his own achievements after his latest dish fest, though, instead keeping the focus on his squad.
“I’m not getting these assists because I’m really that good at passing the ball. [I’m getting] these assists because our team is getting better by adding one more layer and one more layer,” Lin said, via Focus Taiwan.
Lin Made a Strong Bid for NBA Return Before Taking His Game Back Overseas
Following his championship run with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, Lin was forced to continue his career in China when he couldn’t land an NBA gig. He did get an opportunity during the 2020-21 campaign, however, when he landed a deal with the Golden State Warriors‘ Santa Cruz-based G League affiliate.
He acquitted himself well with the team, too, averaging 19.1 points, 6.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds nightly while connecting on 50.7% of his shot attempts overall and 43.1% from three-point range.
Regardless, he never got another chance with an NBA team — a development that he took as confirmation that his hardwood future lay elsewhere.
“That door seems to be pretty shut, and I feel like that was confirmed and double confirmed after what I had done in the G League and how well I had played and seeing that all the top scorers and all the top assist leaders all got contracts except for me,” Lin told The New York Times in 2022. “So, at that point, it was kind of like, there’s nothing else I could do.”
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Ex-Knicks Star Jeremy Lin Sparks Linsanity 2.0 With New Club