• Faith: Christian
• Career: Athlete
• Birthday:  August 23, 1988

Jeremy Lin is a professional basketball player for the New Taipei Kings of the P. League+. He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the New York Knicks during the 2011-12 season, generating a cultural phenomenon known as “Linsanity.” He was the first American of Taiwanese or Chinese descent to play in the NBA and is one of the few Asian Americans to have played in the league.

Lin is the first Asian American player to win an NBA championship, doing so with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and earned Northern California Basketball Player of the Year honors as a senior in high school. After receiving no athletic scholarship offers, he attended Harvard University, where he was a three-time all-conference player in the Ivy League. Lin signed with his hometown team, the Golden State Warriors, undrafted out of college in 2010. He rarely played in his rookie season and received assignments to the NBA Development League. In 2011, he was waived by the Houston Rockets and the Warriors before joining the New York Knicks in early 2011-12.

Initially, Lin played sparingly for the Knicks and again spent time in the D-League. However, in February 2012, he was promoted to the starting lineup and led the team on a seven-game winning streak. Lin’s stellar play during the season helped the Knicks make it to the 2012 playoffs, catapulting him to international fame. He appeared on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time and was named to the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. In July 2012, Lin won the ESPY Award for Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. After his Knicks tenure, Lin played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, and Toronto Raptors.

He experienced some success in Charlotte and Houston but battled injuries in the ensuing seasons. In 2019, he left the NBA and signed with the Beijing Ducks, where he became an All-Star in the Chinese Basketball Association. In 2021, Lin played with the Warriors’ development team in an attempt to return to the NBA. However, he returned to the CBA and played with the Ducks and the Guangzhou Loong Lions. He left the Loong Lions midseason in 2022-23 and joined PLG’s Steelers in 2023.

What religion is Jeremy Lin?

Lin grew up in an evangelical Protestant family in California. He was a leader in Harvard’s Asian American Christian Fellowship during his time there. He credited his NBA success to playing without pressure. Lin said, “I’ve surrendered that to God. I’m not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore.” He hopes to become a pastor who can lead non-profit organizations at home or abroad and has talked of working in inner-city communities to help underprivileged children. In January 2023, Lin announced on social media that he and his wife had been married for two years.

Lin also shared how he keeps his faith strong, saying, “I sabbath once a week for my spiritual well-being. For 24 hours a week, I don’t do any work to rest myself emotionally and physically. I also try to be intentional about blocking off time with God at least once a day.”