As the US National Basketball Association’s (NBA) latest sensation Jeremy Lin (林書豪) wowed basketball fans with his phenomenal performance on court, Chinese Taipei Basketball Association chairman Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said the association would continue to invite Lin to represent the national basketball team in international tournaments.
Lin, the first Taiwanese--American to play in the NBA, had been overlooked and cut by two other NBA teams in December.
However, the point guard has now gotten off the bench and led the New York Knicks to a fifth consecutive win yesterday.
Photo courtesy of Puyan Township Whole-person Care Center
Ting said he invited Lin to play in the national basketball team when he met Lin and his parents on a visit to the US last year. Lin declined the offer at the time because of a knee injury, Ting said.
Ting said at the time that Lin had been unable to demonstrate his full talents as a basketball player, and added that he was proud to see Lin become the biggest hit in the NBA this season.
“I always knew that Lin would shine some day in the NBA,” he said.
Ting said he hoped “Lin-sanity” could reignite Taiwan’s passion for basketball.
“Only sports stars can kindle the nation’s passion for sports — for example, star pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民) in baseball and world champion Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) in golf,” he said. “So we have been making every effort to get Lin to return after the season ends in a bid to ignite people’s interest in basketball, too.”
The blossoming point guard has also drawn attention in China. The country’s basketball association has made several attempts to include Lin on its national roster.
“Taiwan is home for Jeremy Lin, so we are optimistic we will see Lin representing the Taiwanese basketball team in future,” Ting said.
Over the past two years, Lin has returned to Taiwan for two consecutive summer breaks and recently said he planned to visit again this year.
In the past, when asked about his desire to represent the national team, Lin said his top priority was to secure a spot in the NBA.
He said that whether or not he represented Taiwan in the future, he would still contribute to the development of the sport in the nation.
As Lin led the New York Knicks to victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, 20 children from southern Taiwan were also among the fans cheering for Lin.
The 20 students at Chuanghua County’s Sinshui Elementary School were from the lucky group selected for a basketball match last year with Lin.
Three years ago, the pastor of the Muyi Lutheran Church in Greater Taichung, Yang Yu-chin (楊友欽), and his family offered after-school tutoring to underprivileged students during weekends and took the students to play basketball after class.
Lin gave the students some pointers in August last year.
Student Wu Cheng-liang (巫政良) said he still remembered Lin’s lessons — especially that Lin had urged the students to “never give up.”
Wu said the students had asked Lin how an Asian player like him could compete with some of the more muscular players in the NBA.
“With diligent practice, I stand a chance of overtaking them,” Wu quoted Lin as saying. “Just never give up on anything, and never underestimate yourself.”
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff Writer
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS