Lin remembers many racist remarks hurled at him in NCAA
Jeremy Lin, the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, has often been targeted with racist remarks throughout his career.
Asians are rare in collegiate and professional basketball, and as the Brooklyn Nets point guard described on the Outside Shot podcast with Randy Foye, hearing racist remarks was a regular occurrence during his four-year college career at Harvard.
"The worst was at Cornell when I was being called a c---k," Lin said, as transcribed by ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk. "That's when it happened. I don't know ... that game, I ended up playing terrible and getting a couple of charges and doing real out of character stuff."
"My teammate told my coaches (that) they were calling Jeremy a c---k the whole first half. I didn't say anything because when that stuff happens, I kind of just, I go and bottle up where I go into turtle mode and don't say anything and just internalize everything."
Lin also recalled playing a game at Georgetown where hecklers called him names based on popular Chinese-American food items. Upon visiting Yale, one fan made racist remarks about Lin's eyes.
Even opposing collegiate coaches and players hurled racist insults at Lin with no reproach from officials.
"In Vermont, I remember because I had my hands up while the Vermont player was shooting free throws (that) their coach was like, 'Hey ref! You can't let that Oriental do that!' I was like, what is going on here? I have been called a c---k by players in front of the refs, the refs heard it because they were yelling it 'Yeah, get that out, c---k!' And the ref heard it, looked at both of us and didn't do anything."
Lin thought he would incur more insults upon entering the NBA, but his experience has been the exact opposite.
"When I got to the NBA, I thought, this is going to be way worse. But it is way better. Everybody is way more under control," Lin said.
He added: "To this day in the NBA, there are still some times where there are still some fans that will say smaller stuff and that is not a big deal. But that motivates me in a different way."