New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin will have left knee surgery and miss six weeks, likely ending his amazing breakthrough National Basketball Association (NBA) season.
The Knicks said on Saturday their point guard had a scan last week that revealed a small, chronic meniscus tear.
With the regular season ending on April 26, the biggest story in basketball this season is probably out for the rest of the campaign regardless of whether the Knicks make the playoffs.
He was barely holding on to a place in the NBA back in February. Now, after performances that brought him to stardom from Taiwan to New York, he has to go back to the bench when he wants to play most.
“If this was done very early in the year ... I don’t know where my career would be. I could be, would be definitely without a job and probably fighting for a summer league spot,” Lin said. “But having said that, this happening now hurts just as much because all the players, we really put our heart and souls into the team and into season, and to not be there when it really matters most is hard.”
New York will continue to turn to Baron Davis in place of Lin, the undrafted Harvard alumnus who became the starter in February and turned in a series of brilliant performances, sparking the phenomenon known as Linsanity.
Lin is averaging 14.1 points and 6.1 assists, but the numbers only tell a small part of the story.
The Knicks were under .500 and looking like a mess when Lin was given a chance to play extended minutes at point guard for then-coach Mike D’Antoni on Feb. 4 against New Jersey.
Lin, the first American-born player of Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, scored 25 points with seven assists in that New York victory and was inserted into the starting lineup two days later against Utah, taking the Knicks on a seven-game winning streak that gained worldwide attention.
Lin left the Knicks’ easy victory over Detroit on March 24, saying afterward he could have returned for the fourth quarter if the game had been close. He took part in shoot-around before their game last Monday and believed he could deal with the pain.
Though the swelling went down, the pain never did, and after testing it again on Friday and Saturday, he decided to have the surgery.
“I can’t really do much. Can’t really cut or jump, so it’s pretty clear that I won’t be able to help the team unless I get this fixed right now,” Lin said before the Knicks played Cleveland. “It’s disappointing for me, it’s hard to watch the games and I’d want to be out there more than anything right now, but hopefully, it’s a six-week rehab process, but I tend to heal fast, so hopefully I can come back as soon as possible and still contribute this season, hopefully.”
Lin will be a free agent after the season and said he hopes to return to New York, but otherwise was not thinking that far in the future.
“I’m not even worried about that right now,” he said. “It’s not like a career-ending thing or it’s not something that will bother me. Once it’s fixed, it’s fixed, it’s the most simple surgery you can have and so I’m more concerned about the season.”
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
SECURITY: Taipei presses the US for arms supplies, saying the arms sales are not only a reflection of the US security commitment to Taiwan but also serve as a mutual deterrent against regional threats Taiwan is committed to preserving the cross-strait “status quo” and contributing to regional peace and stability, the Presidential Office said yesterday. “It is an undeniable fact that the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent democratic nation,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) reiterated, adding that Beijing has no right to claim sovereignty over Taiwan. The statements came after US President Donald Trump warned against Taiwanese independence. Trump wrapped up a state visit to Beijing on Friday, during which Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had pressed him not to support Taiwan. Taiwan depends heavily on US security backing to deter China from carrying
The subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Kumamoto, Japan, turned a profit in the first quarter of this year, marking the first time the first fab of the unit has become profitable since mass production started at the end of 2024. According to the contract chipmaker’s financial statement released on Friday, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), a joint venture running the fab in Kumamoto, posted NT$951 million (US$30.19 million) in profit in the January-to-March period, compared with a loss of NT$1.39 billion in the previous quarter, and a loss of NT$3.25 billion in the first quarter of
RESOLUTE BACKING: Two Republican senators are planning to introduce legislation that would impose immediate sanctions on China if it attempts to invade Taiwan US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday reaffirmed US congressional support for Taiwan, saying the US and “all freedom-loving people” have a stake in preventing China from seizing Taiwan by force. Johnson made the remarks in an interview with Fox News Sunday on US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last week. In an interview that aired on Friday on Fox News, just as Trump wrapped up a high-stakes visit to China, he said he has yet to green-light a new US$14 billion arms package to Taiwan and that it “depends on China.” “It’s a very good
RSS