Jeremy Lin Felt He Was Supposed to ‘Save Houston Basketball’

Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin spoke candidly to a group of 20,000 at a youth conference in Taipei, Taiwan. Lin talked about the pressure he felt during the Linsanity phenomenon, and after signing his large contract in H-Town. Per the Gospel Herald (via the Houston Chronicle): “With his sudden rise to NBA stardom, Lin was expected to be the Houston Rocket’s cornerstone player – ‘I was ready to invigorate the entire city of Houston … I was supposed to save Houston basketball,’ he said. What happened next was not exactly what Lin had hoped for – he didn’t play well at the start of the season and took a back seat to a newly-signed teammate, James Harden. Lin became very frustrated and anxious about losing his starting spot on the Rockets – ‘I became so obsessed with becoming a great basketball player … trying to be Linsanity, being this phenomenon that took the NBA by storm,’ he said. ‘The coaches were losing faith in me, basketball fans were making fun of me,’ said Lin, who was called ‘overrated’ and ‘overpaid’ by the media. Lin soon realized that all of his success and fame had not fulfilled him the way that many think it would – ‘I was supposed to be joyful and free, but what I experienced was the opposite – I had no joy, and I felt no freedom,’ he said. After much reflection, Lin realized that he had allowed himself to be consumed by his job, and that he was trying to base his self-worth on his performance. He decided to re-prioritize his life, and tried to stop listening to all of the negative comments from onlookers. He also stopped dwelling on his own disappointment, he said. ‘I had to get back to listening to God’s voice,’ said the NBA star – ‘I had to get back to being who God made me to be.’ Lin had remembered that his identity is founded upon being one of God’s beloved children, purchased by Christ; ‘Linsanity,’ he said, was an identity that had been created by the world. […] Lin is no longer enslaved to a desire for approval from others, or by trying to live up to the ‘Linsanity’ hype.”