Former NBA star Jeremy Lin has signed with China’s Guangzhou Loong Lions after months of speculation that he might relocate to Taiwan.
“The journey continues! Still feel like a kid getting to live out my basketball dreams,” Lin wrote on Instagram on Monday, with photographs of him in the club’s jersey and T-shirt.
The signing means that the Taiwanese-American point guard is to play a third season in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) after spending two seasons with the Beijing Ducks.
Photo: AFP
DUCKS PERFORMANCE
Lin’s performance with the Ducks declined in the 2021-2022 season, when he averaged 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists, down from 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists in the 2019-2020 season.
His floor time also shrank from an average of 32.1 minutes over 39 games to just 22 minutes over 23 games, and with Lin becoming a free agent this off-season, local fans wondered if the former NBA sensation might play professionally in Taiwan.
FAMOUS MOMENT
Lin hit the spotlight in February 2012 when he scored 38 points against the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden, igniting an improbable run for the New York Knicks.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Lin has maintained his popularity in Taiwan since then, and the possibility of him playing in one of Taiwan’s two professional basketball leagues had general managers angling to get him on their teams.
The Kaohsiung Steelers of the P.League+ said that they wanted to enlist Lin for the P.League+’s 2022-2023 season, while the New Taipei Kings signed Lin’s younger brother Joseph Lin in what many speculated was designed to attract Jeremy Lin.
IN HIGH DEMAND
“If you ask any general manager in this league: ‘Are you trying to get Jeremy?’ and the answer is ‘no,’ then there are two possibilities. One is that he’s lying; the second is that he’s going to get fired,” Steelers general manager Kenny Kao said in July.
However, those hopes have now been dashed, with the CBA’s 2022-2023 season set to start on Oct. 10.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely