Jeremy Lin — a nine-year NBA guard and current player for the Santa Cruz Warriors of the G League — made a post Thursday on Facebook about the racism that Asian-Americans deal with. Lin wrote in the post, “Being a 9 year NBA veteran doesn’t protect me from being called ‘coronavirus’ on the court.”
Shams Charania of The Athletic reports on Friday night that the G League is opening an investigation to look into Lin’s claim.
The NBA G League is opening an investigation into guard Jeremy Lin’s statements that he has been called, “Coronavirus,” on the G League court, source tells @TheAthletic @Stadium. Lin is playing for Golden State’s affiliate, Santa Cruz.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 27, 2021
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told the media that he applauds Lin for speaking out:
"It's shocking to me that we can treat each other so poorly based on the color of skin." @warriors coach Steve Kerr applauds Jeremy Lin for speaking out about increasing racism towards Asian-Americans. pic.twitter.com/hfohihsgEu
— CBS News Bay Area (@KPIXtv) February 27, 2021
“I just saw the Facebook post just now. Really powerful. I applaud Jeremy for his words and echo his sentiments regarding racism against the Asian American community. It’s just so ridiculous and obviously spawned by many people including our former President, as it relates to the coronavirus originating in China. It’s just shocking. I don’t know… I can’t wrap my head around any of it, but I can’t wrap my head around racism in general. We’re all just flesh and blood. We’re all just people. As Pop once said to me, ‘We’re all accidents of birth.’ We’re born, we come out the way we are. We don’t have a say in it. What we do have a say in is how we treat people. It’s shocking to me that we can treat each other so poorly based on the color of skin or whatever it is. So, I applaud Jeremy for speaking out.”
Lin, 32, became the first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA when he made his debut with Golden State in the 2010-11 season. The Harvard grad became the story of the NBA — “Linsanity” — in 2011-12 when he put together a terrific season for the New York Knicks. And in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors, Lin became the first Asian-American to win an NBA championship.
Here’s Lin’s full Facebook post:
Something is changing in this generation of Asian Americans. We are tired of being told that we don’t experience racism,…
Posted by Jeremy Lin 林書豪 on Thursday, February 25, 2021
