Jeremy Lin, the first NBA player of Taiwanese descent, announced yesterday that he would be joining the Charlotte Hornets next season after one season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
A league source told Yahoo Sports that Lin’s deal with the Hornets would be “two-year, US$4 million-plus.”
Lin became an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday last week after his three-year, US$25 million contract expired at the end of last season.
Photo: EPA
The 26-year-old guard made the announcement on his Facebook page, saying that he would do his best to contribute to his new team.
As a truly free agent for the first time in his NBA career, Lin said that “the one thing that mattered to me the most was finding a team that would be a good fit for me.”
“I wanted to be on a team where I would be able to play freely and truly play the game I love with joy again,” Lin said.
Lin, a devout Christian, said he made the decision to sign with the Hornets after “a lot of prayer and long discussions” with his family and friends.
“My journey has never looked the way I (or anyone else) thought it would, but God has always worked things out for my good and I am confident that he will continue to do so,” he wrote.
In the post, he thanked Hornets coach Steve Clifford, as well as the Lakers organization and the city of Los Angeles for their support.
Asked if he would be backing up the Hornets’ starting point guard Kemba Walker or playing more shooting guard, Lin replied in his post that the Hornets want him “at both the 1 and the 2, as well as running lots of pick and rolls,” which he described as “great fit and opportunity.”
He added that his free agency goals were to “find the right fit and a place where I could be most empowered to be the player I believe I can be” and that “Charlotte was the obvious choice.”
Walker, 6-1, was the ninth pick in the first round of the 2011 NBA draft. The 24-year-old guard played 62 games with the Hornets last season, averaging 17.3 points on 38.5 percent shooting, 3.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
In October last year, the Hornets and Walker agreed to a four-year, US$48 million contract extension that kicks in next season.
Lin rose from obscurity to stardom after leading the struggling New York Knicks to a seven-game winning streak in 2012, but he then endured two frustrating seasons in Houston that entailed changing roles and trade rumors.
Lin was traded by the Houston Rockets to the Lakers last summer and he admitted to feeling uncomfortable splitting ball-handling duties with Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant and adapting to Lakers coach Byron Scott’s Princeton-based offense.
Lin lost his starting position in December last year after he had averaged 11.9 points on 45.2 percent shooting and 4.9 assists in his first 20 games.
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