At Large with Alex Wong: Toronto Raptors guard Jeremy Lin
Welcome to “At Large with Alex Wong,” a podcast where I’ll be sitting down with athletes, celebrities, media personalities and generally interesting people to dive beyond the surface and find out who these people really are.
For me, personally, I can’t think of a more perfect first guest for this format than Jeremy Lin (It would have been more perfect if I waited an extra week to schedule the interview, since Lin was bought out by the Atlanta Hawks and joined the Toronto Raptors a few days after we recorded our conversation). It’s been seven years since Linsanity turned the 30-year-old guard into a worldwide sensation. Lin ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated for two straight weeks. He had Madison Square Garden in the palm of his hands. Overnight, the entire world knew who Jeremy Lin was.
Being an Asian-American and having talked about and dealt with racism growing up playing sports, it put Lin in a position where suddenly an entire community was looking for him to become a voice for them. It took time. Just watching Lin from afar, I’ve seen him become more comfortable in embracing his identity.
On this episode, I talked to Lin about finding his voice and thinking more about his Asian-American identity over the past seven years, his work with One Day’s Wages, an international nonprofit, the craziest things he’s ever been asked to sign by a fan, his favourite memories from Linsanity, whether he still avoids hot soup, and more.
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