Taiwanese-American professional basketball player Jeremy Lin (林書豪) yesterday remained tight-lipped about which National Basketball Association (NBA) team he hoped to play for next season, saying that the most crucial thing is that he should feel happy playing basketball.
“To me, the most important thing as a free agent is that I am happy when I play basketball or show up for work. I was happy last year, but I was not particularly happy for the first five years [as an NBA player],” he said at a press conference in Taipei. “To be happy, I need to consider a few things. Of course I am going to consider who is coaching the team, the team’s style, the players on the team and their chance of winning, as well as the on-court time I have and if I have a chance to start.”
As to which team he would prefer to sign with, Lin said his agent would call him after the June 23 NBA draft is completed, when the NBA teams are scheduled to trade players.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The 27-year-old Charlotte Hornets guard had quite a productive season, averaging 11.7 points, 3 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. His average score went up to 12.4 points in the playoffs.
Earlier this week, US media reports said he had declined the player option on his contract and is to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Several NBA teams were reported to be interested in recruiting Lin, including the New York Knicks, the Houston Rockets, the Brooklyn Nets, the Philadelphia 76ers, the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lin was greeted by more than 200 fans on his arrival at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport early yesterday morning. Apart from giving autographs, Lin took selfies with his fans and gave away autographed caps and T-shirts.
Lin also attended a news conference organized by his sponsor, Adidas, where he met with some high-school basketball players.
Lin’s brother, Joseph Lin (林書緯), is a point guard with the Fubon Braves of the Super Basketball League.
Jeremy Lin said he is very proud of his younger brother’s achievement.
He said he knew many young players watched YouTube videos and copied the moves of famous players.
He said footwork and the fundamentals of the game are the most important things for young players to learn, adding that beautiful moves do not necessarily help increase a player’s shooting average.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
ENGLISH-MANDARIN: A lawmaker said that he believed the change was made to follow common practice while operating in international airspace The air force this month started issuing Chinese-English bilingual radio warnings to expel Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that fly into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), a senior military official said on July 9. Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Wang Te-yang (王德揚) said the decision was made after considering three factors: enemy threat, the global situation and aviation safety. Previously the air force only used Mandarin when intercepting PLA aircraft that fly into the ADIZ because both sides use it as their official language. An ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify,