Jeremy Lin
My best career decision was probably not giving up when I wanted to. God as well as my family and friends were there for me during my toughest times.
It's the off-the-court spotlight in terms of having people look at you in terms of analyzing every little thing you do in your life, or having less privacy in your day-to-day activities, that's an area I need to get more accustomed to.
When you think about your relationship with Christ, it really just affects every aspect of your life. I think a lot of people try to segment off, like, 'This is church, so this is God, this is my daily life, this is my job,' but I think true faith is when it manifests itself in every single aspect of your life.
From the sense of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ, hopefully, through my story and through all the improbables and the miracles that happened in my life, people are inspired or at least a little bit warmer to the idea of exploring who Jesus is.
Everyone looks me and says, 'I'm not going to let that Asian kid embarrass me. I'm going to go at him.' That's how it's been my whole life.
The change that I never fall into is the, 'I'm-above-you-look-at-me-do-stuff-for-me change.' The change that I'm hoping I get to is where I become wiser, smarter - where I put myself in situations that don't have a huge potential for disaster.
I get scared of a lot of attention. I get scared of the spotlight. And I'm not talking about on the basketball court.
I won't let any of my friends become a fan. To me, you're either a friend or you're a fan. That doesn't mean my friends can't support me, because they all do, but they can't treat me differently than they would treat someone else. None of my friends are in awe of me.
You don't get better if you win all the time. You look at yourself more when you lose.Collection: Winning
For me, when I get knocked down, I really try to get back up and go at it again. I don't like to give up.Collection: Giving Up
Well, I'm not here to live up to anyone else's expectations-I'm here to live up to mine.Collection: Expectations
All these people, all these things came into my life, and they're all blessings from God. And now that I look back, I realize that these are His fingerprints all over my story.Collection: Life
My identity is in Christ, not in basketball.Collection: Basketball
I had to learn how to give my best effort to God and trust him with the results. I have to learn to have enough faith to trust in his grace and to trust in his sovereign and perfect plan. I had to submit my will, my desires, my dreams — give it all up to God and say, “Look, I am going to give my best effort, go on the court and play every day for you, and I'm going to let you take care of the rest.Collection: Dream
When I’m on the court, I try to play with all my emotion and heart.Collection: Heart
God loves me, and that he has the perfect plan for me. His plan will take me through a lots of ups and downs, but if I stay faithful to him that in the end he will work everything for my good. Now when I play basketball, I don't play for anyone else, I only play for God. That's the type of purpose that he gave me, and once he gave me that purpose, is when I found my peace, and once I got my peace, that's when I got my joy.Collection: Basketball
If you look back at my story, it doesn’t matter where you look, but God’s fingerprints are all over the place.Collection: Looks
This is my dream being lived out and I'm so thankful for that.Collection: Dream
Every day in practice I have to lead by example. But at the same time, when people aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, you're responsible as a player. You can't rely on the coaches to say everything. The players have to be responsible and take ownership of the team. Every day in practice there are situations where you need to say something and get a message across, but do it in the right way.Collection: Team
I realize I had to learn ... to stop chasing the perishable prizes of this earth ... and give my best effort unto God and trust Him with the results.Collection: Best Effort
I've surrendered that to God. I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore.Collection: Thinking
And when other people see me play basketball...the way I treat my teammates, the opponents, the refs, that's all a reflection of God's image and God's love so that's the stuff I try to focus on.Collection: Basketball
Just this whole journey [of life] has been a blessing from God, so for me to be here [on Earth] I'm just taking it one day at a time and really enjoying it.Collection: Blessing
The way you talk to your teammates and push them and the way you treat them is important. There is a fine line between trying to help your teammates and criticizing them. The toughest part for me is how to keep my teammates accountable but at the same time do it in a loving way that doesnt judge or condemn them. It's definitely been a struggle and I'm trying to learn how to lead consciously in a way that honors God.Collection: Struggle
Trying to make the NBA is one of the very few areas where a Harvard degree won't necessarily help.Collection: Nba
I just want people to respect the privacy of my relatives in Taiwan. ... They need to live their lives as well.Collection: People
With pro-gaming that's one of the toughest parts - living game to game.Collection: Playing Games
I've learned how to be open and bold about my faith, but in terms of my influence, I just try to lead in a godly way. What that means for me is to serve them, whether it's just doing the dirty work, like cleaning up sweat on the floor, or deferring to other people, or carrying equipment bags.Collection: Dirty
In many ways, the longer I live, I understand that there are so many things outside my control. That’s why I believe faith is such a big part of the story. There are so many things that were orchestrated by God, that were put into place to make this perfect storm, that created Linsanity.Collection: Believe
I think one of the most rewarding experiences in life is to see people come to Christ and make lifestyle changes. When that happens, you definitely see God behind it. This year we've seen eight students make first-time decisions for Christ and when I see that, it's a great feeling. I'm really thankful that God is changing somebody, or sometimes he's changing me.Collection: Thinking
You don't get respect for being an Asian-American basketball player in the U.S.Collection: Basketball
Having small group once a week gives me a lot of encouragement and accountability. Even though I go to church, I don't really know many people there, but my real community is my small group.Collection: Encouragement
It's really important to me to go to church, which is sometimes tough when I get back from road trips late on Saturday night, but I try to make it a priority to go every week.Collection: Night
I just try to make sure that when I get there on the floor, I play as hard as I can and try to do everything I can to help the team win.Collection: Team
You can try to call it coincidence, but at the end of the day, there are 20, 30 things when you combine them all that had to happen at the right time in order for me to be here. That’s why I call it a miracle.Collection: Order