Jeremy Lin returns to Beijing Ducks amid retirement hints

Jeremy Lin is not done playing professional basketball just yet.

After rumors swirled that the NBA champion guard was heading towards retirement following a failed NBA comeback, Lin announced on Saturday, June 12, that he was taking his talents back to China to play for the Beijing Ducks.

“No regrets about the past, excited for the future. Still got a lot of basketball left in me, and we’ll see where this road goes,” wrote Lin on Instagram. “Thank you all for going on this journey with me.”

Lin last played for Beijing and the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2019-2020 season, where he averaged 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists. This was after he suited up and sparingly played for the title-winning Toronto Raptors in 2019.

Despite his strong play in the elite Asian pro league housing many other ex-NBA players, the Taiwanese-American sensation fell just short of a full-fledged NBA return, and instead settled this year with the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors, where he played just nine games.

Although just 32 years old, Lin is far removed from his “Linsanity” days with the New York Knicks due to a series of injuries that cut his prime short.

He played the best stretch of his career back in the 2016-2017 season, where he averaged 14.5 points, 5.1 assists, and 1.2 steals in just 24.5 minutes.

However, he ruptured his right knee patellar tendon in the first game of the following season, and since then, he settled for bench roles with Atlanta and Toronto before dropping out from the league altogether. 

– Rappler.com