Next Jeremy Lin, how long will we have to wait?

When I heard the news of Jeremy Lin’s retirement this morning, my heart skipped a beat. On the last day of August, he wrote a farewell on a social platform and put an end to his basketball journey. In his 15-year career, nine years of the NBA, winning the cup with the Raptors in 2019, and the "Lin Crazy" that ignited New York was all put back into his memory by him in an understatement - but for countless fans, especially fans in the Chinese-speaking world, those are not just memories, but more like an eternal coordinate.

Xinhua News Agency Chart, Beijing, February 11, 2012 Chart: NBA Chinese player - Jeremy Lin Xinhua News Agency reporter Qu Zhendong compiled

Xinhua News Agency Photos, Reuters, On February 11, 2012, Jeremy Lin (Part 2) celebrated the victory. On the same day, in the 2011-2012 NBA regular season, the New York Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 at home. Xinhua News Agency/Reuters

I saw in the comment section that someone was watching the NBA seriously the first time he was watching it seriously. In that February 2012, Madison Square Garden welcomed a special hero, bringing unprecedented energy: scoring 38 points against the Lakers, everyone was shocked.

Jeremy Lin has too many labels: Chinese, academic master, out-of-draft pick, point guard. In the NBA context at that time, these labels were superimposed on the same person and had no relationship with the word "fame". Objectively, Asians are already rare in North American professional sports, even more so when they zoom in to the NBA. Even in recent years, Asian players have only taken a drop in the NBA. Jeremy Lin became a kind of "unique".

"Is he accidental?" This question is actually always taken out every once in a while. There are indeed accidents: the Knicks' backcourt injury, the head coach's tolerance for the pick-and-roll, and the spotlight of the city in New York. But by chance, there is enough necessity: Harvard has fully achieved the ability of ball business and reading games in four years; it was lost, delegated to the Development League, was laid off, picked up again, and the repeated grinding of ball processing and confrontation efficiency happened to be fully realized during that window period.

Xinhua News Agency Photo, Toronto, February 15, 2012, Knicks player Jeremy Lin (right) celebrated his victory after the game. On the same day, in the 2011-2012 NBA regular season, Chinese player Jeremy Lin scored a three-pointer before the end of the game, helping the New York Knicks defeat the Toronto Raptors 90-87 away, ushering in the team's six consecutive victories. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Zou Zheng)

The next Jeremy Lin? Too difficult! I don't want to rush to simply attribute the reason to "physical talent". The NBA guard position is the most cruel track in all positions: faster pace, more space, more ruthless defense replacement, and more intensive decision-making. If a defender wants to gain a foothold here, he must push the rhythm, withstand confrontation, and press the ball decision to an extremely low turnover rate. He must also return the correct answer in seconds in the judgments of "I can break, I can shoot, I can pass" and "I should break, I should shoot, I should pass". For Asian players, the real threshold is not just about technology, but also about too few samples and too many prejudices. When you rarely see this template, even if you are not bad, it is harder to be "see". This layer of "seeing" is everywhere, from the selection of materials in the youth stage, to the playing time in the NCAA, to the trial training and two-way contracts at the edge of the NBA. Jeremy Lin has been carrying forward with the burden of being "almost the only Asian NBA representative" for a long time, and this is indeed the case.

But I won't say, "There will definitely not be there." Asian basketball has still emerged with answers from different positions and paths in recent years. Look at Hachimura Shizuki, who directly entered the NBA with the ninth pick in the first round; then look at Yuta Watanabe, who relies on defense and three-pointers from two-way contracts to standard contracts, telling young people that "role values" can also open the gap. Instead of copying "Lin Crazy", they found a suitable position in the NBA puzzle along their respective strengths.

Return to the question of "How long to wait". I would rather replace "wait" with "creation". What to "create"? Making soil. Parents, coaches, and fans should expect from "teaching single-choice questions" to "ability multiple-choice questions". Don't put your children into a body template early; youth training and school teams should teach "playing with your body" more seriously, not brute force, but reasonable confrontation, ball protection details, and weak-side reading; seedlings with potential to go to sea should be exposed to high-confrontation environment as soon as possible, even if it is the NCAA end rotation or even the edge of the G League, a real playing time is more meaningful than swiping data in a comfortable circle; public opinion should give the weak template a little more patience, and don't give a young point guard a "verdict" with two mistakes. If these soils are gradually established, the emergence of the "next" will not be a great fortune, but a natural result.

What Jeremy Lin gave us is a precious "sense of path": you can be eliminated, delegated, and you can be cut off, and you can start from the bench, as long as you catch the ball and make the decision right at the moment you are needed. He also left the meaning of "Why I" outside the court - allowing more children who look similar to him to dare to raise their heads and say "I can try it too" in physical education classes and community courts. I think this is what "Lin Crazy" left to us after retreating.