Free agent guard Jeremy Lin has signed a deal to play in the Chinese Basketball Association with the Beijing Shougang Ducks, the team announced on Tuesday.
In an Instagram post, Lin thanked the NBA and others for his past nine seasons in the league.
“All I can say is thank you to the NBA, my family, inner circle, every fan who came to watch or rooted for me during these last nine years,” Lin wrote in the post. “To challenge stereotypes, make history, rep Asians at the NBA level and pave the path as others have done before me has been an absolute privilege.”
Despite winning his first NBA championship with the Raptors in June, the past few years have been difficult for Lin. The 31-year-old guard has played for four teams over the past four seasons and struggled to find consistent playing time on any of those teams.
Lin, who went undrafted out of Harvard University in 2010, is best known for his remarkable run with the Knicks during the 2011-12 season. At the time, Lin was relatively unknown before he burst on to the scene as the Knicks’ leading scorer for over a month. His incredible performances, along with him being the first Chinese-American and Taiwanese-American player in the NBA, sparked “Linsanity”, which saw Lin’s fame rise to global proportions.
Now that his NBA career has taken a pause, Lin is excited to bring his talents to China.
“I always knew my path would go through the CBA, solely because I knew how much of an honor it would be to hoop in front of all my Chinese fans,” Lin said in his Instagram post. “I’m here now and there is more history to be made!”
The Ducks have been one of the best teams in the CBA over recent years. Former NBA star Stephon Marbury led the team to league championships in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Marbury, who retired at the end of the 2017-18 season, is now the head coach of the Ducks’ rival team — the Beijing Royal Fighters.
