Belmont and Belcourt Biographies - Jeremy Lin

Copyright 2012

All rights reserved. Neither this book nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form without permission.

eISBN: 9781936910038

The first non-white NBA player was a Japanese-American by the name of Wat Misaka. In 1947, just a few years after many of his race were being interned in US war-time camps, Misaka was a starter for the New York Knicks. He played three games at the Garden. By his own account, he never gave his role in this small part of history any thought; he was just playing a game he loved and was thankful for the opportunity.

Flash forward sixty-five years and three Asian American NBA players later. Jeremy Lin is starting for the Knicks at the Garden. The odds of him being in this place at this time are as unlikely now as they were for Misaka in 1947. The middle son of Chinese emigrants, born in Palo Alto, California, sounds a lot like Misaka now, when he says he is just thankful for the opportunity to be a member of a good team.

It has often been stated in the media lately that Jeremy Lin has been hiding in plain sight until the first few weeks of 2012. Indeed, the kid who spent his first few games at the YMCA sucking his thumb on the court while his teammates scurried around after the ball has come a long way in his twenty-three years, largely on his own energy and drive.

Taking a look at Lins life up to now is a snapshot in persistence and determination, more so than luck and even opportunity. It all begins with Gie-Ming Lin, Jeremys father. As a young student from Taiwan, Gie-Ming was nothing if not a basketball fan. He devoured the techniques of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He watched and re-watched the classic games between the Lakers and the Celtics in the 1980s. It was inevitable that Gie-Mings love of the game would translate to his sons.

Jeremy spent his early life in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Shirley, also emigrated from Taiwan; her roots go back to mainland China where Jeremys grandmother still lives today. Jeremy is a physical anomaly in that both of his parents are five feet six inches tall. At six-foot-three, Jeremy towers over his parents, as do his brothers, Joshua and Joseph.

Gie-Ming came to believe early on in his US experience that Asian parents spent too much time focusing their children on academics and dismissed the importance of sports. He first introduced Jeremy to basketball when, at age five, Jeremy was signed up to play at the local YMCA. Jeremy, reportedly, was not initially thrilled by the game.

Jeremy basically watched his teammates play from the best seat in the house: the court itself. Shirley had seen enough after only a couple of games and refused to return to the next game. Allegedly, Jeremy asked his mother to return to the stands. She agreed only after Jeremy promised to try harder.

With his muse sitting in the stands from then on, Jeremy went on to set the local YMCA records for the season. He scored the maximum number of points allowed by any one player. At this point, it could be said that the rest is history. Far from it, however, as this was just one hurdle among many that Jeremy went on to face in pursuit of his dream.

It is these bursts or blossoming of unexpected performance that makes Jeremy Lins life unique in many ways and sets the tone for a lifetime of similar experiences for him and his fans. He works hard at his craft, but there is something about his being in the right place at the right time that also has the makings of a great American success story.

Gie-Ming Lin will say that it was not so much that he dreamed of any of his three sons being stand-out basketball players, but rather that he just enjoyed playing pick- up games with them at the Palo Alto YMCA. Jeremy was born and raised there, and he and his two brothers, one older and one younger, attended Palo Alto High School, a stones throw from Stanford University.

Palo Alto is what would be termed, then and now, as an upscale suburb of the County of San Francisco. It is located on the southern end of San Francisco Bay, about mid-point along Highway 101. The band America memorialized part of the stretch of this famous interstate highway as Ventura Highway. Some of those lyrics are strangely applicable to Jeremy Lin: Youre gonna go, I know, and Cause the free wind is blowin through your hair....

Jeremy Lin and his family are very representative of Palo Alto, a city of about 62,000 people. While the population comprises mainly Caucasians, the second largest demographic group is Asian, at just over twenty-two percent. Nearly half of the residents have graduate or professional degrees. Jeremys father is no exception. He has a PhD in Engineering. The median home price in Palo Alto is just under one million dollars.

The Lin family is also representative of a more traditional Chinese method of raising children. Jeremys mother, Shirley, saw to it that, during every year of school, her sons performed at the highest academic levels. In high school, she was known to call Jeremys basketball coach, Peter Diepenbrock, and threaten that if her son did not improve a grade of A-minus to an A, he would no longer be on the team. Coach Diepenbrock made sure Jeremy improved his grade.

Jeremys father was as focused on basketball as Shirley was on her three sons academic performances. Gie-Ming took Jeremy to the local YMCA three nights a week, after he finished his homework. Diepenbrock was later quoted as saying Jeremy was a youth league legend in Palo Alto before he entered high school. Joshua Lin, Jeremys older brother, was also an early inspiration, as Jeremy idolized his brother.

Even at this early age, Gie-Ming and all three sons would study the tapes of the Lakers and Celtics historical match-ups in order to pick up the subtleties the game that the professionals knew so well. Friends would later recall hearing Gie-Ming telling his son that they were going to have to study the pros on video after some of these youth league games in order to sharpen his skills. Jeremys long-time friends knew then that the Lins were in a league of their own.

Jeremy went on to become a Palo Alto High School Viking starter in his freshman year, in the playoff no less. While only five-foot-three upon entering high school, Diepenbrock immediately recognized Jeremys potential despite his compact physical stature. Both coach and player enjoyed a relationship during those four years that endures to the present. Jeremy was once quoted as saying of Diepenbrock, Hes more than a coach. He knows how to teach in an effective way, where teenagers can understand and stay motivated. Its more than a typical coach-player relationship.

Under Diepenbrocks tutelage, Jeremy became the go-to player whenever the Vikings found themselves in a clutch. As a point guard, Diepenbrock found that Jeremy could be relied upon to make the pivotal plays. Again, that uncanny ability to make a three-pointer in the most stressful situations seemed to be one of Jeremys gifts. With Jeremys long arms and terrific jumping ability, Diepenbrock relied heavily on him throughout his high school career. Another value-added benefit of Jeremys presence was the fact that his athletic ability was often underestimated by both opposing teams and their coaches. Of course, Jeremys unexpected performance and contribution to any Viking win did not go unnoticed for long.

The kid who flunked his first driving test for going too slowly was anything but slow when it came to the court. His performance for the Vikings during those four years was one of consistent improvement. In his junior year, Jeremy was injured while playing a pick-up game at his beloved YMCA right before the playoffs. He had to sit out for the big event, but even then, victory was in reach for the Vikings.