After Linsanity fizzled out, Jeremy Lin was still able to carve out a decent career in the NBA. However, after suffering a ruptured patellar tendon during his Brooklyn Nets debut in 2017, Lin’s career went downhill.
Although he was able to find a way to the Toronto Raptors’ 2018-19 championship team and become the first Asian to win an NBA title, the league literally ghosted Lin after that season. And even if Lin ate his pride and went back to the G-League after a solid nine-year NBA career where he averaged 11.6 and 4.3 assists per game, he never got his second chance.
Advertisement
“So I had won the championship, I went overseas, had a really good year, and then that was still not enough. And so I was like ‘Alright, I’ll come to the G-League and prove it’ and so I came to the G-League and that was one of the craziest decisions too, cuz I ended up giving – between on court and off-court salary, I ended up giving up $7,000,000 to take a $30,000 salary in the G-League,” Lin told Dwight Howard on the latter’s “Above the Rim” podcast.
Lin took an unlikely route back to the G-League
When no team signed Lin in the summer of 2019, he decided to take his talents to China’s CBA and prove himself all over again. Lin debuted in style, posting a 25-6-9 stat line in his first game for the Beijing Ducks.
Advertisement
A strong showing made him the second-highest vote-getter for the 2020 CBA All-Star Game, and Jeremy made the most out of his start for the North team by scoring 41 points. However, the season was cut short by COVID-19 and he finished with averages of 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game.
When the pandemic was over in 2021, he finally got a call from an NBA team – his old team, the Golden State Warriors. But the deal was for him to play in the G-League first. As he said, it was crazy for a 9-year vet like him to go that route. But he was determined to make a return to the NBA. And so he took the gamble.
Lin was making good money in the CBA
Considering he was paid $3 million by the Ducks for his services during the 2019-20 season, plus endorsement deals as one of the most popular players in the CBA, $7 million was easy to make for Lin in 2021, but he gave it up for the G-League’s pocket change, believing his gamble would pay off because he was back healthy and only 32 years old at that time.
Advertisement
“I ended up doing really well,” Lin recalled.
“I was Top 10 in points, Top 10 in assists, on the second-best team and then basically, all of the top leaders, out of the Top 10, I was the only one who didn’t get even a 10-day or anything. So I was like, ‘What’s happening?’ Like I’m proving myself, I’m averaging 20 and 8 or whatever, on one of the best teams and clearly showing that I can do it, but again, you don’t realize how fast it can change…You don’t realize how quick the perception of you changes.”
Considering that Steph’s backups during that season were Brad Wanamaker and Nico Manion, you could argue that a healthy Lin could have fared better. But as Lin said, how teams look at players changes in the blink of an eye.
Advertisement
And for Lin, that was why it was such a disappointing ending to his NBA career.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Mar 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.