Earlier in January, former Golden State Warrior and now current Charlotte Hornet Jeremy Lin returned to the Bay Area to play against his former team. Whenever Lin is in town (no relation to me), I always try to get a press pass vis-a-vis my blogging for 8Asians to catch him play, as well as see the awesome Golden State Warriors. This time around, Lin was still kind of recovering from an injury:
“Former Palo Alto High standout Jeremy Lin was back in the Bay Area on Monday night and witnessed some history. Unfortunately for Lin, it wasn’t about his NBA Charlotte Hornets. While Lin started and scored 13 points with three rebounds, it was the host Golden State Warriors grabbing the headlines once again as they posted a 111-101 victory for its 35th straight victory at home.
…Lin had been listed questionable for the game with tightness in his lower back. He did play 34 minutes on Saturday, but had missed the two previous games with a sprained right ankle. Nonetheless, he was on the floor Monday night at Oracle Arena to face the team that he’d started his NBA career with.”
After the game was over, I was able to make it to the post-game locker room interview. Lin briefly took questions from the press, but he was fairly soft spoken and the locker room was a bit noisy. One question I did hear from a Chinese reporter from NetEase was what his mother thought of his current hair style (spiked), and Lin answered that his mother wasn’t too happy about it:
This is Lin’s first season with the Hornets, but he’s apparently making a bigger difference with a lower profile team when he was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers:
“So far this season, Lin has started six games for the Charlotte Hornets and has played 38 of 40 games so far this year. He is a dependable scoring option off of the bench for the team and a player that can create shots for others as well.
This season for the Charlotte Hornets, Jeremy Lin is averaging 12.3 points per game, which is good enough for fourth most on the team, to go along with 3.o assists per game, and 3.2 rebounds per game in 26.4 minutes per game this year.
He is shooting 42.3% from the field, 30.6% from three, and 77.8% from the free throw line this season. Lin’s defense has been a nice surprise for the team this season as he has a 99.1 defense rating on the year which is good enough for fourth best on the Charlotte Hornets.”
When Lin joined the NBA, I think he was just glad to be in the league playing. When Lin started for the Knicks and the whole Linsanity thing happened, expectations for Lin were kind of blown out of proportion. It seems like Lin has finally found a team where he is valued and where he can contribute.
Photos & video courtesy of 8Asians.
