Taipei, March 9 (CNA) Jeremy Lin, the first American-born NBA player of Taiwanese descent, has neither authorized nor agreed to the publication of any book in Taiwan on his life story, a local law firm said Friday.
Formosa Transitional Attorneys at Law issued the statement at Lin's instruction amid reports that many publishers, including some in Taiwan, are rushing to publish books about his meteoric rise from obscurity to one of the NBA's biggest stories of the season.
The law firm said the New York Knicks point guard is afraid that local publishers might promote their publications as authorized biographies that have his stamp of approval.
Lin has said he does not want to see local readers misled into taking whatever is available on bookstore shelves as having been authorized by him, the statement added.
The 23-year-old Harvard economics graduate came off the end of the Knicks bench in February, after being cut by two other clubs, to put in the best performance of any NBA player in his first 10 starts since 1976. After leading the Knicks on a seven-game winning streak over the course of the month, Lin became New York's newest sensation.
The hoopla surrounding his stellar rise, dubbed "Linsanity," has also spread to Taiwan, China and other Asian countries where basketball is popular, including the Philippines, Japan and South Korea.
Riding on the "Linsanity" craze, the Taipei-based China Times Publishing Co. said March 3 that a book featuring Lin's rise to stardom will go on sale in Taiwan March 10.
The book, titled "Lincredible 17," will contain over 100 photos, the publishing company said, adding that the 144-page book's 12 sections will cover Lin's professional and personal life.
One of Lin's friends, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that the publishing company has not made any contact with Lin in producing the book.
However, the publishing firm said Lin's statement will not change its plan to launch the book and said that all the photos it contains have been acquired legally.
(By Lung Po-an and Sofia Wu)
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