The NBA’s developmental G League is looking into a claim made by Jeremy Lin that he was called “coronavirus” on the court during a game, which he opened up about through a post on Facebook.
Lin, who plays for the Golden State Warriors’ G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, shared a heartfelt social media post on Thursday, about an act of racism he experienced during a game. He did not mention where or when it happened.
“Being an Asian American doesn’t mean we don’t experience poverty and racism. Being a 9-year NBA veteran doesn’t protect me from being called ‘coronavirus’ on the court,” Lin wrote. “Being a man of faith doesn’t mean I don’t fight for justice, for myself and for others. So here we are again, sharing how we feel. Is anyone listening?”
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said he will support Lin and denounced any discriminatory act that caused Lin to speak out about racism targeting Asian Americans.
“Really powerful. I applaud Jeremy for his words and echo his sentiments regarding racism against the Asian-American community,” said Kerr before Golden State hosted Charlotte at the Chase Center. “It’s just so ridiculous and obviously spawned by many people, including our former president, as it relates to the coronavirus originating in China. It’s just shocking. I can’t wrap my head around any of it, but I can’t wrap my head around racism in general.”
“We’re all just flesh and blood. We’re all just people. As (Gregg) Pop (Popovich) once said to me, ‘We’re all accidents of birth. We’re born. We come out the way we are. We don’t have a say in it. What we do have a say in is how we treat people.’ It’s shocking to me that we can treat each other so poorly based on the color of skin or whatever it is. So I applaud Jeremy for speaking up,” he remarked.
32-year-old Lin became the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent when he broke in with the Warriors during the 2010-11 season. He has played 29 games for the Warriors as a rookie. Then he went to the New York Knicks and gained popularity that spawned the nickname “Linsanity”.
In totality, the former Harvard star averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists in 480 regular-season games from 2010 to 2019 and also won an NBA title with Toronto in 2019.
Shams Charania of The Athletic revealed that the G League had launched an investigation into the alleged incident. The league confirmed the investigation to The New York Times.
