Former NBA star Jeremy Lin (林書豪) has signed with the Kaohsiung 17LIVE Steelers of the P. League+, the club announced yesterday.
Multiple Taiwan-based franchises had been pursuing Lin, but the 34-year-old veteran chose the Steelers because he identified with the franchise’s “Big South Program,” and wanted to help bring more attention and resources to southern Taiwan’s basketball scene, the team said.
Lin’s “game, leadership and toughness will bring new stimulus to the Greater South’s basketball scene, and he will help bridge the gap between our younger and veteran players,” Steelers general manager Kenny Kao (高景炎) said in a video message.
Photo: AP
Kao said the club is still negotiating with Lin’s team on the timetable of his arrival in Taiwan, news conference for signing and debut game.
“KaoHsiung, here I come!” Lin, whose parents hail from Taiwan, wrote on Instagram.
The decision also means Lin would be reunited with his former teammates Aaron Harrison and Shawn Chou (周儀翔), with whom Lin played in the NBA and in China, the Steelers said.
Lin’s addition to the Steelers would bring fresh hope to the struggling team as they sit bottom of the six-league rankings with a 2-13 card.
Speculation about Lin possibly signing with a Taiwanese team began as early as last year, when questions about his performance and playing time in China started to appear.
His total points scored in his second season for the Beijing Ducks in 2021-2022 dropped to 309 in 507 minutes over 23 games from 871 points in 1,252 minutes over 39 games in his first season in 2019-2020.
Out of the seven games Lin played for the Guangzhou Loong Lions before leaving the Chinese league this season, there were two games in which he only played four minutes each.
In between his two stints in China, Lin spent time with the Santa Cruz Warriors, the Golden State Warriors G League affiliate, during the 2020-21 season.
Lin gained a huge following in Taiwan after he took the basketball scene by storm more than a decade ago, and even though that backing has moderated over the past few years, he would likely still be a big hit with any Taiwanese club, given how many fans follow him on social media.
Lin became the first American of Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA in 2010-2011 and shot to fame in 2012 with the New York Knicks.
The ensuing “Linsanity” craze began when Lin scored 38 points against the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers during an electrifying home win at Madison Square Garden.
His addition to the P. League+ is also likely to bring more attention from basketball fans from across Asia and the world.
Lin is to be joined by his brother, Joseph Lin (林書緯), a two-time P. League+ champion who plays for the New Taipei Kings.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS