Jeremy Lin (林書豪), the first American-born NBA player of Taiwanese descent, is on his way to Taipei. The Houston Rockets star tweeted at 10:33pm Thursday (Pacific time) that he was off to Asia.
“Sorry for the prolonged absence ... Now off to Asia,” the Harvard University economics graduate tweeted.
He also wrote in Chinese that he will be very happy to see his Taiwanese fans again.
According to media reports, Lin is scheduled to arrive in Taipei this morning for his first visit to Taiwan since rising from the New York Knicks bench to global stardom earlier this year and later signing a three-year contract with the Houston Rockets worth US$25.1 million.
He will make two public appearances during his stay. Tonight, he will attend a street hoop gala in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) during which one of his sponsors will launch a new type of sport shoes and stage basketball games.
Lin will host a news conference tomorrow at 2 pm in Taipei’s upscale Xinyi District (信義) to talk about his decision to leave the Knicks to head to Houston.
Organizers of his current trip, which will also include a visit to China, have not released details of the rest of Lin’s itinerary and would not reveal his arrival time in Taiwan.
In his latest Twitter update, Lin also announced the release of his new video, titled The Off-season, on Youtube.
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