- My agent, he watched me really just be a shell of myself.
He said, "Jeremy, this might be your last game in the NBA.
Dude, your back is against the wall.
And if you're gonna get knocked out, do it swinging."
[Intense music]
[NBA announcer speaking indistinctly]
- [Announcer:] Pull-up jump shot.
It’s good. Jeremy Lin!
[Music intensifies]
[Crowd cheering] - [Public address announcer:] Jeremy Lin!
[Upbeat music]
- [Lin:] Basically, what happened was we played in Boston.
We got back around, you know, whatever,
like, 1 a.m., 2 a.m.
I was on Landry Fields’ couch
because my brother and sister-in-law had friends in town.
So they were crashing on the couch, where I normally crash.
And so, by the time we get to Landry's apartment, he's like,
"This is my couch. I told you it was small."
And I was like, "Oh, my goodness.
This is smaller than I thought."
And I had my head hanging off one end,
legs hanging off the other.
I was curled up, you know, in a fetal position.
I still couldn't even fit on the couch.
So I wake up the next morning, terrible night's rest.
So immediately go to StuyTown, grab a fresh set of clothes,
and I stopped by Papaya Dog.
And then I went to MSG.
And that was just my day.
And it was just, like, this feeling of, like, is this the end?
And, you know, I remember my agent calling me,
and he was basically saying like,
"Look, this is probably your last game in the NBA
if they even give you an opportunity to be on the floor."
He said—and he had been walking with me
through all my overthinking, my insecurities, my anxiety.
And he watched me really just be a shell
of myself my whole rookie year.
And he told me, he said,
"Jeremy, this might be your last game in the NBA.
If it is, you gotta go out playing Jeremy Lin basketball."
And that really stuck with me.
And I was like,
"I gotta swing for the fences tonight and just go for it."
- [Announcer:] Jeremy Lin. [Crowd cheering]
And you hear a pretty big ovation.
- Growing up, New York basketball was not easy to like.
- Basketball in New York City is its lifeblood,
and the Knicks have been awful.
- And he brought energy to the Knicks
like I've never seen before and haven't seen since.
- [Lin:] Started, I was loose.
And I just feel like that was really supernatural
cuz I struggled a lot with pregame anxiety.
But, like, for whatever reason, that day
when I got subbed in, I was just ready.
[Electronic dance music]
If I had four points in the game, I'd be like,
"Dude, that's a good game."
But I was like, "Dude, that's a great half.
Like, I'm really happy with this half."
But then in the second half,
like, I don't even know what happened.
It just flowed. [Crowd cheering]
It just flowed and I just got in the zone.
- [Announcer:] Magical night for Jeremy Lin.
He's the hero from Harvard on the game of his life.
- Immediately, I went to eat with my parents.
My phone was just going insane.
Like, I had hundreds of messages.
And then I got home
and I was with my brother and sister-in-law
and I was about to crash on their couch.
They were like, "Dude, what happened?"
I was like, "I don't know." And we were just like...
we were all in shock.
And then, I pull up ESPN and I'm on the front page.
And so now, we're all geeking out and I'm taking photos
and screenshots.
The coolest thing about it was I got to celebrate it
with the people that I was closest to, who had been with me,
who had told me not to quit when I was ready to quit.
- [Fan:] Garden was absolutely electric.
Every game felt like Game 7.
Knick fans are still excited,
but not as exciting as it was during, you know, Linsanity.
I became a Knick fan at the time.
- I think he gave us a lift at a time when we needed it.
- Linsanity brought a ton of energy
and a little bit of winning,
which we didn't have at that time.
[Techno music]
- I hated it for years.
Like, my whole life, I've always wanted
to just be, like, Jeremy.
It almost felt like phenomenon
which I was never really down with.
But I realized, like, later, I came to really accept it
and embrace it now
because to some people that was that.
That was, like, such a moment of inspiration.
- You know, he could've been a king of New York.
And you just get this hope,
this energy, this love that this one guy just brought
to the city.
And then, just like that, it was gone.
- I was always the underdog.
I was always surprising people.
It was always like, “Oh, he’s better than we thought.”
So I'd never been in a position
where I had any expectations.
Now, it's like, I almost became, like, public enemy No. 1
to the New York fanbase.
And I think what was really disheartening about it
was that the claims and the things that people were saying
about me weren't true.
And I think that's what really hurt me.
And that's when I kind of realized,
like, perception is reality.
And I actually tried to, you know,
go back and ask the Rockets.
I wanted the Rockets to give me less
so that New York could match.
I was trying to do everything behind the scenes
so I could stay in New York.
And a lot of what had happened and the aftermath
and the fallout, I actually still to this day am not aware
of why it happened, how it happened or whatever.
But that fallout was one of the tougher things
that I've had to experience.
And it really bothered me deeply.
And I felt extremely misunderstood.
[Soft music]
- You know, there was just this energy
that's hard to really vocalize unless you're
from a city or a town that has a sports team
that they just love.
- [Fan:] To see the Garden actually light up,
changed my perspective on basketball a little bit.
- It’s the Knicks. No matter
whether they’re good or bad,
no matter what,
Knicks fans are Knicks fans. They’re always gonna appreciate that
no matter what.
- As a New Yorker,
I'm glad that we had Jeremy Lin in our city.
- Yo, Jeremy, man, we loved you.
We still love you.
And I still have all the wristbands,
the Linsanity wristbands, I have about 30
of ‘em sitting in a box in my house
and we always—
- Ah, that's cool.
Man, I'll always have love for New York.
Every time I go back, it's just, it’s love.
Even nine, 10 years later, doesn't matter.
If I'm back there, it's like, dude, let me tell you
where I was when this happened.
Dude, let me tell you how this impacted me.
We were thinking about what's the best way to honor
the 10-year anniversary of Linsanity.
And we felt like the best way to honor is to give back
because the city and the fans gave us so much.
And so, we're starting a fundraising campaign
to be able to give the profits and the proceeds
to organizations in New York to be able to try to help.
You're looking at setbacks in education and in resources,
opportunities.
You're looking at mental health issues for youth.
You're looking at a lot of delay and restriction
of access to sports and extracurriculars.
Like, we're in this together.
We're a community. We're a humanity.
And that's what's so special about this story.
It could have happened in any city,
but the fact that it happened in New York at MSG,
there's no better city for it to happen in the world.