This photo taken on August 4, 2020 shows Beijing Ducks’ Jeremy Lin driving the ball during the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) match between Beijing Ducks and Guangdong Southern Tigers in Qingdao in China’s eastern Shandong province. (Photo by STR / AFP)
BEIJING, China – Jeremy Lin is rejoining the Chinese Basketball Association’s Beijing Ducks after a failed attempt to make an NBA comeback, the 32-year-old announced on Saturday.
Lin became the first Asian-American to win an NBA championship while playing with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 and signed for Beijing as an unrestricted free agent that year.
He made a tearful departure from China after the coronavirus saw the CBA suspended for almost five months but now says he will return.
“Beijing Ducks, excited to be back this upcoming season!” Lin wrote in an Instagram post.
Lin has said he still harboured “NBA dreams” and played earlier this year for a Golden State Warriors development team, but emerged at the end of the season without a contract.
“I gave my ALL and hold my head high,” Lin wrote in an emotional social media post last month after he failed to meet the NBA callup deadline.
Lin had previously complained of poor protection from the CBA after he temporarily lost his hearing after the Beijing Ducks’ 2020 semi-final defeat.
Lin said Saturday he had “no regrets about the past.”
“Still got a lot of basketball left in me and we’ll see where this road goes.”
Lin began his NBA career with Warriors in 2010 before his heroics with the New York Knicks in 2012 sparked a cultural frenzy that was dubbed “Linsanity”.
He went on to play for several other NBA teams but has struggled with injury in recent seasons.
Despite that he enjoyed a successful stay in China, where he averaged 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game during the regular season.