Jeremy Lin announced his retirement at age 37 after a nine-year NBA career highlighted by the 2011-2012 'Linsanity' breakout and a 2019 championship with the Toronto Raptors. He signed with the Golden State Warriors in 2010 as an undrafted free agent and later played with the Santa Cruz Warriors during the 2020-2021 season. Lin said saying goodbye to basketball was the hardest decision of his 15-year career and called competing under the brightest lights an honor. Rookie Kaitlyn Chen described Lin as an inspiring Asian American role model who gave underdog athletes someone to look up to.
When Valkyries' rookie point guard Kaitlyn Chen first saw Jeremy Lin, she wasn't rooting for him. Chen, a Pasadena native, was in third grade when she watched Lin torch her hometown Los Angeles Lakers for 38 points during the height of the Palo Alto High alum's Linsanity run. But looking back on that moment, Chen has a deep appreciation for Lin's impact on her and the rest of the Asian American basketball community.
I feel like he has been someone that Asian American athletes are able to look up to. There really aren't a lot of Asian American role models out there, so for him to sort of be that person was just super inspiring. Golden State Valkyrie's Kaitlyn Chen (2) and Kaila Charles (6) pose for a photograph with former NBA player Jeremy Lin after their WNBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025.
As athletes, we are always aware that the possibility of retirement is never far away. I've spent my 15-year career knowing that one day I would have to walk away, and yet actually saying goodbye to basketball today has been the hardest decision I've ever made, Lin, 37, said in an Instagram post on Saturday. It's been the honor of a lifetime to compete against the fiercest competitors under the brightest lights and to challenge what the world thought was
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