The time was right for Jeremy Lin to enter Raptors spotlight

Lin had finished a whirling day which started with his flight to Toronto and a video to his 1.6 million followers on Instagram of snow from his hotel room with the comment, “Just landed, this Toronto weather is not playing around.” He couldn’t sign until officially clearing waivers around 5 p.m.

So Lin passed his last medical checkpoints, and they gave him the Etch-A-Sketch course in the team’s walkthrough, the basics. He stayed late with fellow new acquisition Marc Gasol, watched some video, went to chapel with other God-fearing players and came off the bench. Raptors guard Fred VanVleet underwent surgery on his injured thumb Wednesday and could miss five weeks rather than three. So Lin would play.

And he was fine. He was a little jumbled, naturally, but also found some plays with teammates that worked. He was on the floor when the Raptors, led by Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, dragged the game out of the doldrums with energy and execution. He played the zone that Gasol wasn’t ready for in his Saturday debut, and tried to play with energy. He was given a long run. He watched the end, and the Raptors won.

And when he came into the game he got a warm standing ovation, like the one Gasol got Monday. Lin has always been loved here.

“I was just trying to stay focused on the game, but it’s hard at times,” said Lin. “Every time I come to Toronto it’s always felt like a home game. The fans always show up, no matter what team I played for. But to come out here tonight, to get that type of reception, even though I was trying to be stoic and figure out what we were going to do on the defensive end, it was very heartwarming for sure.”

It’s a home game of sorts here because Toronto has a million people of Asian descent, and Lin isn’t just another useful veteran added to a contender hoping for a title run. He is the NBA’s first Asian-American player of real consequence, the author of Linsanity in those 21/2 unforgettable weeks with New York in 2012, and is the man who has followed the bumpy, peripatetic career he has carved out since. He is an icon, and a symbol, a myth.

He loved it in Atlanta, but the Hawks bought him out, because he wanted to play for a contender while he could. And the Raptors wanted him to come.

So yes, he tried. Head coach Nick Nurse said, “I think he went in there thinking pass, pass, pass tonight a little bit and I think he had a chance to take some more shots because I think he can score. But that’s okay … I think he looked good out there. His speed, quickness, ball handling, he fits in nice out there.”

He will fit better. He will learn. Lin did do some pre-game scouting, though, because his friends sent him videos of Gasol’s befuddlement at Kyle Lowry’s complex, team-wide starter’s intros. So Lin did push-ups, and was just another Raptor.

“I think all my friends told me ‘Don’t let this be you,’ or ‘This is about to be you,’” said Lin. “And so when I got here — I played with Danny (Green) in what was at the time the D-League — I asked Danny, ‘You got to tell me what’s going on because I don’t want to be Marc in the video. All my friends were sending it to me, so that helped me out so I jumped right into it seamlessly.”

He was, of course, asked about the responsibility of his status as Jeremy Lin — after the incandescence of Linsanity and the disappointment of how it ended in New York, after the idea that his Asian status was why he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time and People, after everything — and the Harvard-educated kid from California reflected on the road that brought him here. He’s obviously thought a lot about it.

“Yeah, (Mandarin media) probably happens in every city that has a strong Asian contingent,” said Lin. “Happened in Atlanta as well, but not this. So again, I’m very proud to represent Asian people on a global platform, on a global scale. And for me to be here where there’s a lot of Asians — like, I used to run from it, you know?

“Because that’s all anybody’s ever wanted to look for. Like, ‘Oh, he’s Asian, he’s Asian, he’s Asian.’ And I was like, talk about my basketball. But now people can see I can play, I belong in the NBA, and I’ve really embraced just being able to represent Asians, and do it the right way, hopefully.”

He was asked, how long did it take to embrace it? People who have spoken to him say he is deeply aware of his responsibility, of his celebrity and the power that comes with it. Linsanity was the start. Everything since has been about deciding what path he takes, and what burdens he chooses to carry.

“Yeah, I mean, I think I was really jaded after the New York stretch,” said Lin. “I think there was a lot of things that happened that made me give up a little bit on people, per se. And that was a huge part of the story, and that was a huge point of contention for a lot of people as to why I was getting the publicity, or why things were the way they were.

“So I kind of wanted to run from that a little bit. I would probably say three years down the road, I kind of turned a corner, and I would say being hurt for two straight years, and seeing that my Asian fan base, I don’t feel like it dropped off one bit. And I haven’t even touched the court. Like, every year I go over to Asia and I can’t even walk through the airport — it’s insane. So to see them do that after all the highs and lows, but really going through the lows post-Linsanity, which culminated in those injuries, for me, I’m still blown away. And again, that’s fed into why I want to carry myself a certain way.”

Jeremy Lin has a new home, new fans, a new chance. The Raptors have been a jumble, with inconsistent lineups and injuries and one game where every single player who was supposed to be there was in uniform. Lin will try to figure things out along with them. He’s never had a chance to go deep in the playoffs, to matter in that most fundamental basketball way.

So he’s the biggest small part of something bigger now. Linsanity is the biggest reason he was cheered in Toronto, and around the world. But it was a long time ago, and he’s a different man now. In Toronto, Jeremy Lin has a chance to create another reason to cheer him, too.