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First Taiwanese-American basketball player joins NBA
2010/07/22 20:18:07 |
Los Angeles, July 21 (CNA) Jeremy Lin has become the first Taiwanese-American player to join the ranks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) after signing a contract with the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco Wednesday.
The 21-year-old, both of whose parents emigrated from Taiwan in 1971, said at a news conference after inking the contract that he was so excited and jubilant that he could hardly describe his feelings.
"This is crazy! " was the best he could do when asked to describe how he felt about his success in joining basketball's grandest stage of all.
The terms of the contract were not announced, in line with Golden State Warriors policy, but according to media reports, Lin signed a two-year contract with a partially guaranteed salary of US$500,000 per year.
His father, Lin Chi-ming, said in a telephone interview with CNA that it was an extraordinary achievement for an Asian-American to make it into the NBA league. Even in U.S. college basketball, Asian-American players only account for 0.4 percent of the roster.
The 190-cm point guard, who recently completed a four-year stint at Harvard University, is also the first Harvard graduate to join the NBA league in 57 years.
At Harvard, he became the first player in Ivy League history to record at least 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals.
He finished the final year of his NCAA career averaging 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocked shots per game. Moreover, he was selected to the All-Ivy League First team and was among the five finalists for the John R. Wooden Award for most valuable player in Division 1 college basketball.
Lin conceded that it is difficult for a player to make a name for himself playing in the Ivy League. "The bad thing about playing for Harvard is that it is harder to get noticed, but the good thing is that you can get a higher standard of education," he said.
Besides shining on the court, Lin also gained valuable academic experience at Harvard, even working as an assistant to a California state senator in an internship program.
After not being selected in the 2010 NBA Draft, Lin played for the Dallas Mavericks in the 2010 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas earlier this month, where his stellar playing drew the attention of several big-name squads hoping to sign him. However, as a native of the Bay Area and a Warriors fan since childhood, Lin opted in the end to join his home team. (By Leaf Jiang and Sofia Wu) enditem/J
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