As Caris LeVert said about his trip to Asia with Jeremy Lin this summer, “You see pictures, but being there firsthand was even more amazing.”
Lin’s popularity overseas was confirmed again this week when Mailman, a digital sports marketing company in China, released its 2017 NBA “Red Card report.” Lin, now in his eighth year in the league, ranks just behind Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry in popularity, based on social media.
The report assessed and calculated the players’ Weibo followers, engagement and follower growth, Baidu (operator of China’s largest online search engine), Weibo mentions, and Chinese website presence.
Bryant was the big winner in the competition, according to the Mailman calculation. He garnered 119 points, ahead of Curry (103), Lin (99), Dwayne Wade (86) and ex-Net Stephon Marbury (76). Bryant hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2015-16 season, Marbury since 2009, but has been a major star in the China Basketball Association in the years since.
Mailman also ranks teams. The Nets didn’t make the top 5, but three of Lin’s former teams did: the Warriors, Rockets, and Lakers.
Lin makes an annual tour of China and Taiwan every summer, hitting multiple cities, holding clinics, doing television interviews and commercials for Subway.com, and participating in Christian events.
