Jeremy Lin believes Asian people have an uphill battle when it comes to making it in America — essentially saying basketball players and non-athletes of Asian descent are “underestimated” in the U.S.
The Brooklyn Nets star was giving an interview in Mandarin Chinese to an ESPN reporter when he was asked how he felt about NBA summer league standouts Zhou Qi and Ding Yanyuhang, both from mainland China.
“I’m very happy and hope they can perform well,” Lin said.
“In the U.S., a lot of — doesn’t matter if it’s basketball players or people in other professions — they look at Chinese people or Asians and they surely will underestimate us.”
“So I think if we can have more Asian basketball players it will help our masculinity a lot.”
It’s not the first time Lin has talked about the way Asian men are viewed in American society — back in April, he gave an interview saying Asian men are viewed differently (and unfairly) from sports to dating … but has hope that things will change.
“I think we just need to keep being ourselves and I think that the world will come around and appreciate us Asians.”
