Jeremy Lin says the announcement of his retirement was premature

JEREMY LIN

Whoa! It looks like sports journalists jumped the gun. Jeremy Lin is not retiring from professional basketball.

Lin posted a long, cryptic message last week on social media wherein he admitted that he had come to the realization that his attempt to return to the NBA was not going to happen. It sounded like the end of his career.

He wrote: "I didn't get it all done, but I have no regrets," Lin wrote. "I gave my ALL and hold my head high. As for what's next, I trust what God has in store for me … Thanks to everyone whose rolled with me on this journey. I love you all."

“It wasn’t my official retirement, but it was definitely something where I’m kind of realizing that there’s not much else I can do to prove that I belong in the NBA,” Lin told The Spin.

At one time, he was the only Asian American in the National Basketball League.

Since he began his career 11 years ago when he went undrafted after a stellar 4-year stint at Harvard, he played played for the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors. He last appeared in a game for the 2018-19 Raptors that won the NBA title.

The high point was a few weeks with the Knicks when he started in place of the team's starting guard. He was nothing short of spectacular. For 26 games, he was the toast of the town. Linsanity was born.

Unfortunately, an injury kept him from playing in the playoffs and he was never able to regain the consistent winning form of Linsanity.

After playing part of the season with the Raptors, where he earned helped earn a championship, no NBA team picked up his contract so he spent a year playing for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. 

Last year he turned down a huge contract to return to the Ducks so he could audition for the NBA by playing in the G-League with the Santa Cruz Warriors. He was among the top ten scorers in the league. He watched as the other top scorers were called up by NBA teams. When he didn't get that call, he came to the realization that his NBA dream may be over.

But, he says, he's not retiring and his mulling over his options.  “Every challenge that I’ve been given, every ask of me I’ve done and I’ve performed well, so for me, it’s kind of realizing, hey, it doesn’t really matter what I do,” Lin says.