Jeremy Lin at HKU | Never Done: Endurance. Purpose. Faith.

[Music] [Applause] now let me get rid of dirt in it to do this okay ladies and gentlemen please welcome Jeremy every time I think about you Jeremy the two words that come into my mind one is Linsanity and the other is Christianity and I wonder whether you could say a little bit about what happened really because with insanity I mean it was extraordinary moment 2012 I think it was you knew NYX and you just outperformed yourself and everybody else and you were instantly in an overnight star you were sensation everybody heard about you including people that didn't play basketball and then you were really really famous so my question is what happened how did it happen why do you think it happened and does your faith anything to do with it is there relationship between insanity and Christianity yeah that's uh you know for me definitely they're intertwined I actually went home after that season I went back I wrote a list of I think it was 12 or 13 things that had to have happened in order for linsanity to happen and every single one of these things on the list were things that were outside of my control and so you know when you talk about I think a lot of you guys would have tested this as well there's definitely things in your life that may be too good to be a coincidence or you feel like you know there was a divine something that had some control over it one of the things for example is both my parents are five foot six and I'm 63 so I'm I'm nine inches taller than both my parents I'm much taller than both of my brothers and I'm I think 60 or 70 pounds heavier than the next closest person in my family and so things like that right like if I wasn't my size my weight my height I wouldn't have been able to make the NBA but again these are things that are out of my control like you can eat and drink milk all you want but your height is going to be your height as you can tell standing up here again [Laughter] yes that was my answer so definitely there's a link obviously there are other things that I had in in my control as well in terms of like being able to play the way I played was very different than my rookie year just being able to play with a fearlessness and a faith in God which allowed me to stop worrying about maybe what every fan or journalist may think about me right and did that Linsanity thing thing happened I mean did you try to think what on earth is God doing in my life that you have for sure try to win and after and the time after which is what I'm gonna get to today but definitely many times in my life where I'm like God what are you what are you doing or what are you up to and definitely specifically with my insanity is one of those things where I was just mind blown it was like you guys were shocked trust me you guys weren't as shocked as I was like I was going home after the games and I was like I can't believe this just happened I would go on to ESPN and I was like front page of ESPN which was a big deal at that time because it was like ESPN that's the the website I always grew up going to and then my phone was like 200 300 text messages after every game it was just like insane so insane an insane indeed so you know we brought you here to Hong Kong you to speak not just because you're great in a basketball player and certainly not because you went to Harvard but because we think that you are a great role model for our students and in this age where there's so much fake news and all that kind of stuff we thought be great for have you share from your heart a sort of real Jeremy Lin kind of sharing kind of thing and I know you have many important things that you really want to to share with us today so I'm gonna give the platform over to you now to share with us about where you are your life from a very real heartfelt perspective cool ladies and gentlemen Jeremy Lin I just want to first say thank you for the honor to be able to speak here I hear this is the Harvard of Hong Kong yes no and I also that's this very evident because I don't have a translator at the other events that I'm speaking at there's a translator because maybe people don't understand English but apparently are you guys you guys are all good if I use English correct I'll just up with checking ok cool you guys watch the NBA Finals who are you room for split crowd split crowd I see a Golden State a man next time you can't you can't wear you can't wear a Stefan curry shirt to a Jeremy Lin event but seriously it's a pleasure to be here I haven't been back to Hong Kong since 3 years ago and so the goal of today is I'm just going to kind of share with you guys what I learned this past season and that's something that I do every year this is gonna be hard I'm gonna try to look back every once in a while I've never really had a 360-degree audience but uh I'll definitely try to look back every once in a while but what's that keep spinning I'll do my best huh lets me move my knee but yeah so if we think back to last year obviously the main thing that we I'm going to talk about is my injury and so I would say that the injury really asked a lot of tough questions but the main question that I had to ask myself is what will my life look like now and I think you know there's always been two catalysts in my life that have really asked that have really basically encouraged me to ask these tough questions like what does my look life look like what is my life purpose what is my quality of life these type of tough questions number one is when you get what you want so for me that was Linsanity when I experienced insanity I had to ask a lot of questions is this everything I wanted is this enough and similarly on the flip side when you don't get what you want which in this case is the injury you have to really ask yourself the same type of tough questions and so if I could summarize what I'm going to share today it would be that the one thing I have learned is a relationship with God has given me tremendous rest and tremendous joy even in the midst of my greatest setbacks and so that's any time that you're unsure of what I'm saying you can always kind of go back to that theme and so going on to this injury in order for me to properly give you guys the injury and the devastation of it you have to first understand context because the context of it is everything and so I guess the story for me starts you know six years ago and you know for those of you guys who don't know me I am an extremely ambitious person and ever since I was a little kid all I ever wanted to do was to be great at basketball and I remember I was preparing this talk and I was right sitting down on a computer trying to figure out some stuff types of stuff out and I literally couldn't like I couldn't explain just how bad I want to be great at basketball like it's not something that I can just stand up here and tell you like oh I want to be great at basketball you guys like cool got it like you it's hard for me to fully fully convey that to you and and I think aside from the health of my family and my close friends and things like that like there isn't really anything else that I've ever really wanted more than to be great at basketball and so the story kind of starts in New York with Linsanity and I remember in that moment I was like finally finally you guys can see what I'm capable of because the year before was a rough year and I remember I was literally the most popular person on the planet actually like the number one most googled person in that entire year which is pretty amazing and it was like me and in second place was Sai from Gangnam style so it's a good year for the Asians but I remember overnight it just seemed like the organization my teammates my the fans from New York it seemed like they betrayed me or they turned on me and you know I remember thinking to myself you know what just wait just wait I'm gonna train and you're gonna see what happens and I remember in that summer there are times where I would train up to three times a day which is not healthy don't do that that's called overtraining and that's you know but that's how bad I wanted it and so I went to Houston and I was there for two years and in Houston it was tough because I lost my starting position I had to turn over a really bad turnover in the playoffs and I remember in those moments during those two years specifically after that playoff game as well I remember being laughed at and mocked on a global scale and I remember not signing on to my social media not wanting to go on to ESPN not wanting to go on any of the websites I normally go to all these sports websites were all reporting the same thing a lot of hate coming my way and I remember in that moment I mean you you guys have social media if one person trolls your page or your post you might get mad imagine the world doing that seriously like if one person misunderstands you it may really like when you get misunderstood you in one comment or one person it bothers you but for me it was everybody it was the world and I remember asking God I said why would you give me Linsanity just to take it away like it seemed like a like a setup and during those two years in Houston I live with my trainer and my trainer described those two years as as this he said after a bad game I was so scared to talk to you we would just go home and play dota without talking that's all I remember about Houston and and and that's a pretty sad but true depiction of where I was in my life and during that summer I remember I said you know what just wait just wait I'm gonna train I'm gonna train I'm gonna come back a different person and I'm gonna show you guys what's up and I remember that summer or one of the summers my trainer got married in Hawaii and the morning of his wedding that you know I was in the wedding party and so everyone had you know their their suits or their you know their outfits and their getting flowers and their setting up for the wedding everyone's running in and out of the house and I'm over there outside the house doing defensive slides plyos Sprint's up the hill and like watch out watch out like they're coming through with the cake or whatever it is and I'm like literally running and training but that was like my level of of obsession that I had for greatness and I remember I got traded to LA and I got the call while I was in Beijing so the call came from my agent at 3:00 a.m. and so he woke me up he's like man you just got traded and I was like where he's like the Lakers and I was so happy cuz I just I was like this is my moment I can get out of Houston I'm going to a place that needs a starting point guard and I can show the world what I can do I can be great at basketball again and so from 3 to 5 I was basically just jumping around hysterically in my hotel room yelling and literally for two hours it was just me I woke up my family and my trainer I made everyone come over to my room and we were just like yelling and then I want to go eat breakfast and then I went straight to the gym at 7 a.m. and and I was like you know this is this is my moment and we all know we all know how that season went we were a national joke we were literally the joke of the league we won like 20 games and I remember there were times where I didn't want to show my face in LA like I didn't even want to go outside my house because it was embarrassing to play for the Lakers at that time just such a prestigious organization won so many championships for me to walk around was not what I wanted to do and I remember in during that season there were so many sleepless flights there were so many sleepless nights I'd be up at 4:30 5:00 in the morning couldn't sleep pull out the iPad watch some film just my mind tossing and turning and there was just so much angst and pain and you know again same similar questions God how can you do this to me do you love me you know why would you why would you basically set me up for this and I remember in that summer I was like you know what it's cool just wait I'm a train I'm gonna train and I remember I would train even times until I was lightheaded as I knew whenever done that is it takes a lot to train until you're lightheaded and but that's the level of ambition that's the level of want that I had and again you know the next season going to Charlotte we made the playoffs we had a pretty good run we lost in the first round but that whole season I kept thinking to myself I'm a backup point guard for this team I'm not a backup I can do more I can do more I can be great and so I kept telling myself you know deep down inside it was like I know I can do more than what I can do here and so again a big summer and finally in that summer I signed with the Brooklyn Nets and I signed with a coach that I had worked with on the Knicks and I was like this is legitimately that opportunity that I've been waiting for and I remember I signed the contract and I was like all you all you fools who counted me out you're about to eat your words and and I remember I was just so excited for the season and the season came around and boom three straight hamstring injuries I had never hurt my hamstring before I didn't even know what a hamstring really was like I didn't even know you could hurt this muscle in the back but that season I heard it three times I missed over fifty games and I remember feeling a tremendous sense of underachievement and every year I have this Asia trip which I'm on right now where I come back I say hi to all the fans and I remember during that season last year two years ago in Brooklyn I didn't even want to come back to Asia because I was like man I come back I go to you know I go through the airports all the fans come to the airport all the fans go to my events they mom me they send me gifts and I'm like I don't deserve that I have nothing to show for I have underachieved my whole career you guys may think that this is what I'm capable of but I know I'm capable of more and I remember thinking I don't want to come back I don't want to come back until I've really done what I know I can do and again I thought to myself there's more just wait just wait just wait and so at that moment I said you know if I could choose a year any year for my career to relive which one not would I choose and I couldn't honestly say I would choose any of them not even New York because in New York it was a quick 20 game 25 game stretch but the other you know 50 games I didn't even I didn't even play the coach didn't even use me and so for me I was like I want a full season where I can just be myself and at that moment since Linsanity it had been five years five years of waiting five years of being mocked five years of people saying a lot of negative things about me and maybe the people here are very positive maybe Hong Kong embraces me but there are a lot of people in the u.s. that were really really coming for my neck and the average NBA career is four and a half years and so if you think about it five years is a long time like we play from maybe early 20s to early 30s and then we never can play professional sports again so we have a very short life span so five years you're talking about the average NBA career that's the average entire an MBA career and you know but again I was just like you know I'm gonna fight through I'm confused but I'm gonna keep fighting through and so that's what kind of is the context for opening night of this past season finally I'm going into my second year and again the coach is a great coach I'm a starting point guard everything on paper is lined up for it to be what I think it should be and could be and so on opening night I go up for a layup come down on my right leg and boom my patellar tendon gone and I remember I landed and like right now for my knee or your leg like you can straighten your leg like when I landed I tried to straighten my leg but I couldn't my leg was just dangling and it was stuck like this and I remember this whole thing all I could feel was a bunch of warmth it was super hot it was like someone had it was like almost felt like a microwave or something like that and I remembered the fear and and so we were in Indiana we flew back to Brooklyn and when I landed in Brooklyn I have a picture of my knee but it's three to four times the size of a normal knee and like if you just smack it it was like a big thing of liquid or jello like it was just like the whole thing with jiggle and I remember when I looked at my knee like I had a sleeve on but I couldn't even put the sleeve on anymore because my knee was so big and I remember I just broke down crying like I just started crying my teammates started to exit the plane because they wanted to give me some space my head coach came down you know stood right next to me and gave me a hug I gave him a hug I was I was crying and I remember telling him cuz I'm really close to my head coach and I remember telling him man I'm sorry like this is the second year in a row this is the second year in a row that I that I can't I can't be there for you I can't go to battle with you and so if you understand the context of the injury I think it gives you a deeper insight into the devastation of the injury and so from the airport back to my apartment it's a 45-minute Drive and so as I get into the car and I know I'm done for the season I'm thinking to myself just a lot of thoughts a lot of thoughts the craziest thoughts emotion everywhere and I remember in that car ride I was still crying I was still thinking to myself and I was like you know a lot of us we go through highs and lows I all of us go through highs and lows but I was thinking about my career and I was like yeah there's maybe a couple highs there's an insanity maybe a couple good games sprinkled in there but 90 95 percent of my career has been lows and it's been a lot of pain it's been a lot of heartache and I know you guys are looking at me like dude you're in the NBA like you're we're proud of you like we're glad you're an ambassador for asian basketball players but from my standpoint like I know I can do more and so when I think about my career I think about it as just a whole bunch of lows with maybe one or two spikes and that's it and I you know was thinking to myself you know if my career ended today I don't think I would even want my career like I wouldn't be very proud of my career it's not something that I would cherish that I want to show to my kids or something like that like that's kind of my honest assessment today of my career thus far and I remember you know this is I am thankful and that I haven't experienced any tremendous tragedy in terms of you know losing any family members or things like that but up until this point today this is the worst setback of my life and of my career that I've ever experienced and the worst part about is it's in my prime an NBA player ages 27 to 29 that's your prime that's when you play the best and my it's my time from 27 to 29 I have just spent being hurt and I remember on that car ride home I was just cool out to God just pouring my heart out and I remember just crying up to God and saying why why me why me why why does something always have to happen I've worked so hard I know I've worked hard I work harder than so many other players I do the right things I take care of my body why right and I remember it's like two straight offseason six straight months every single day working working working getting better training training training only to not be able to participate it's like studying half a year for a test and the morning of the test you you don't even get to take it and I remember thinking to myself and just crying out to God why does it have to be so hard why does it have to be so hard and as the car ride began to end I was still praying and I start to feel a peace in my heart and I started to feel myself really trusting God and I remember as I was pulling up I was basically saying you know what God if this is the route you want me to take I will do it faithfully and so I went upstairs and my family was there my trainer was there I gave everybody a hug and and then we just played dota and I think you know the most surprising thing to me and my family is just if you were in that room if you're with me the next day you would have never known anything had happened because after that 45-minute car ride back like it was like I was on to the next thing I had I was able to turn the page and just have a very joyful restful heart so again going back to the theme of this talk it's it's I did have a restful heart I did have joy but it was a huge huge surprise to me and it was such a stark contrast from who I was before and you know I think back like how could someone like me who in Houston couldn't even handle one bad game how was I able to turn the page and recover from this so recover from this injury so quickly and and return to a state of rest and joy and honestly it's a relationship with God and and that's that that you know and I'll flush that out a little bit but that's really what has carried me through this injury and this rehab process as I'm still rehabbing today eight months later it's not like I'm a hundred percent today I'm still working my way to get back and so you know that's the one thing that I really learned this past season is with God with faith my greatest obstacle won't be able to stop me from living with joy and I think that's something that is extremely encouraging to myself and hopefully is an encouragement to you guys that as you look around and as you think about your own life there are things and there are times where you may feel helpless and hopeless but the one thing I can say before standing before you guys today is I'm living proof that even in your greatest nightmares even in your greatest setbacks there is still a chance to live with joy and you know I talk a lot about a relationship with God and for me God's love has always been one of the things that has really carried me through because you know what they say is perfect love casts out fear and so on that car ride back during that time in Houston when I had a bad game and I had that turnover during that time in LA when everyone was laughing at us and everyone was laughing at me and we're on all the Instagram pages being mocked on on you know on a national scale during all those times it seems like God's love is just that one thing that I'm clinging on to it's like I'm hanging on by a thread but God's love is still better and bigger than anything this world can offer it's like when you have a bad performance or whatever there are times when I had a really bad game and then I would come out of the locker room and my mom would just give me a hug and it's like in that moment I really felt like hey my mom just loves me for me I don't I didn't have to hit the game-winner I didn't have to win tonight she still loved me and I think that's what it's like with God's love is because I experienced even in my height of heights in the insanity I still had an emptiness about that like I thought it was going to be amazing and it was amazing but it wasn't it wasn't as fulfilling as even the time of injury when I really felt God's presence and I really felt God's love and so that's one thing that appreciate it and so that's one thing that you know I just want to impress upon you guys and the second thing is that I feel like God is fully powerful like the one one another thing that I really hang on to is that God always has a perfect plan for me I've seen that over and over again I kind of alluded it alluded to it earlier when I said there's 12 12 or 13 things that had to have happened but I'll give you another story is people think and talk a lot about Linsanity six weeks before Linsanity I was on the Houston Rockets and they brought me to training camp and there were five other point guards there which basically means if you're not one of the top few you're not making the team and so I remember I was cleaning out my locker room I took all my clothes and my shoes out of my locker I walked out I called my agent and I said I'm done tell the rockets to cut me I'm not playing for them anymore and that's a true story and he you know spent a lot of time on the phone with me maybe like a couple hours or whatever it was like talking me through it and it was basically like hey you have to go back for practice tonight like we can't quit that's gonna you know like you can't quit you've come too far you can't you can't you can't give up so you can imagine the embarrassment that I had when I had to bring back my shoes and my clothes into the locker room but even in that situation six weeks later was insanity and I was the toast of the world but had I given up like I never would have reached that point and that's another example of how God has a perfect plan and he is often and always used my greatest failures and my greatest setbacks as ways for me to grow as a person and in many ways the things that have helped me the most are my greatest points of failure and I think that's something that even in an injury I can always rely on is like god I know you're me I know that there's a lesson here and I trust you because you're loved if God didn't love me I wouldn't trust him if my parents don't love me I wouldn't trust them but God has continually shown that for me in my life and that's why I keep going back to you know my whole our relationship with God allows you to fight through even your greatest setbacks and I don't want to you know sit here and say like oh if you know every single person here has a relationship with god they're gonna experience Linsanity in their lives that's not the point the point isn't that you know circumstantially everything is going to be perfect or even circumstantially that things will get better the point is more that even as you experience your inevitable setbacks even in your greatest moments of weakness like you will still find joy and that's the lesson that I have learned and so you know I I just want to kind of highlight maybe one word in that one-liner that I gave you in the beginning and that word is rest like what does rest look like and maybe this is something that I had to really ask myself and maybe something that as I share right now you guys can kind of think about for your own lives but for me if your heart is at rest you are defined by joy and peace right you live with joy and peace on the flip side on the contrary if your heart is not at rest you live with tremendous fear worry and stress and I think for me is very clear because I was able to see myself before the injury and I was able to see myself after the injury I was able to see myself in Houston I was able to see myself in LA and I was able to see myself in Brooklyn and just the difference between the two and this injury to me and in honestly my whole career seems like I am stuck in this glass case let's say there's a glass case around here and I see everybody else walking by this glass case and they're walking by they're moving along in their life they're accomplishing different things they're they're getting promotions or whatever the case may be and they're just happily going on the path of life and I am stuck in this glass case just looking out at everybody else walking their journey and the worst part is I'm in a glass case so everybody can look in and see me and they can look in and laugh at me and they can look in and see that you are stuck in the same place and that is how I felt for a very long time is that even in my failures my failures if you have a bad day at work you have a bad day at work if I have a bad day at work millions of people will see it and I think this injury I mean millions and millions of people saw it right and I think like so for me that has always been a really tough situation is my weaknesses and my lows are highlighted and magnified on a global scale and that has always been extremely difficult for me to handle but even in that moment of feeling like this is the ultimate glass case this injury even in that moment and feeling all that lost time that I've had taken off my career now including this past year it's been six years since the insanity that I've been waiting even in those six years of me standing in this glass case I can sit here and tell you I am living with tremendous joy and every single day from the from the 45 minutes after I landed in Brooklyn until today if you ask the people around me it's like they would never have known I am just going through life very grateful filled with joy filled with peace and filled with rest and I think as I'm approaching this next season a lot of people are asking me the same question are you afraid of injuring your knee again are you afraid that you'll never be the same are you afraid that you've missed your prime and I think for me having a relationship with God has given me rest and this rest has also given me a newfound boldness and there's an analogy that people often talk about in the game of basketball is if a team is up tenth let's say ten points in the fourth quarter oftentimes in order for that team to win the game they must continue playing to win the game but oftentimes what we see is that team starts to play to not lose right and so they're playing to protect their lead versus playing to grow their lead and so when you play not to lose that is often times when the other team comes back and catches up and eventually probably wins the game and so for me what does this boldness look like this boldness looks like I don't I'm not playing to not lose I'm not playing so that I don't get hurt again I am playing to become my full potential on the court it's a positive attacking mindset that I am approaching next season but that boldness is not something that I have always lived with it's not even something that I can say comes from within it's something that for me a relationship with God and having a restful heart has given me that ability to continue to play to win even though everything around me and all my circumstances are telling me you might get hurt again or you should be afraid of this or you should be afraid of that or it's the beginning of the end for you and I think for you guys a quick test that you can have is if you live with the fearful heart if you are constantly asking what if right what if this didn't happen what if I stayed in New York what if I didn't get injured what if something happens next year when I come back and my knee goes again but when you're living in a place of peace when you're living in a place of joy you start to ask what now okay that happened that's fine what now I got injured what now what is my focus now and so that's a big test where you guys are a big barometer of where you're at in your life today if you're constantly asking what if or versus if you're constantly asking what now and you can apply that to many different things right and I know Hong Kong is a great place but I also know Hong Kong is a tough place to grow up and there are a different set of challenges here I know that there's at times a lot of hopelessness with people going through life and and then maybe they get a great job or maybe they get what they want but they realize oh that's not enough I don't feel it or or maybe it's the the the price of real estate that is going up right now and it's just extremely difficult to find a piece of land for you to start your own family right maybe it's not understanding maybe there's this cloud of uncertainty of not knowing what your future holds maybe it's things to do with political affairs with gut with governmental issues or other things like that there are many issues in Hong Kong and there is a great cloud of uncertainty over a lot of you guys like there is a great cloud of uncertainty over me as I go into next season and come back from a big time injury but the one thing I continue to hold on to is I come back is I'm fully protected by God in His perfect plan and I know that because I've been through my worst nightmares from a career standpoint like my greatest fears were losing my starting position losing my fans make you know losing a game for my team on national television getting hurt and having a big time injury all these things have happened and in all these situations in all these circumstances God's love has continued to carry me through and carry me through and give me hope and so I'm not saying everything won't be I'm not saying everything will be easy but I can at least say my heart is genuinely at rest and so for you guys something to ask yourself is are you defined by worry and stress what is your definition of adversity because sometimes if we think about what our definition of adversity is we realize wow we're living in fear we're living in stress think about your day today or the last week like what are the things that really get you riled up maybe a co-worker a co-worker said something maybe a student said something but how many people out there are going through much bigger issues and so that's something I had to ask myself is I'm playing in the NBA in the greatest league in the world getting paid millions of dollars and my definition of adversity is something very very marginal and that for a long time for many years in my career I was living in a place of fear and I was afraid to mess up and I was afraid to get criticized and on the other side is are you living with - peace are you living with tremendous joy because if your heart is that rest you are grateful you are grateful for the small things are you guys grateful for waking up today are you guys grateful that your right knee isn't blown like mine am i grateful for a lot of things that I have that I can't see right there's times where even I'm gonna be honest as I go on my Asia trip and there's a lot of fans there are times where I'm like oh not now please like another picture another autograph like it's really tiring but and and I have to catch myself and be like be grateful right like a restful heart is grateful for even the little things and so that's something that you guys can continue to ask yourself is are you grateful and I think if you have a restful and grateful heart the inevitable byproduct of that is overflow and what I mean by that is you live radically you live outwardly you live generously you live through service and you know for me it always kind of goes back to Jesus's love is Jesus's love fills my cup but it not only fills my cup it allows me to overflow to the people around me and you can't overflow if you don't have enough for yourself so if your heart is not at a plate of place of rest you cannot overflow into the people around you and so after my injury I was coming back from the hospital the day after and I went straight to the Apple store and I went to the Apple store because the night before when my brother was watching on TV that I got hurt he threw his phone on the ground and he shattered his screen and so I went to the Apple store and I got him an iPhone literally straight from the hospital and the driver that took me to the hospital and back was the same driver I always have and and I'm pretty close with them and you know I saw his phone was kind of beat-up - so I got him an iPhone and then I just bought two more iPhones because I was like you know what they're oftentimes like but maybe it's a ball boy or maybe it's an intern or maybe it's a security guard or a janitor then I sometimes I look at their filling like all it's kind of beat-up I got to give one to you and but that was literally the morning after the toughest injury I've ever had in my life and I'm not sitting here trying to be like oh look at me I'm such an angel or whatever like oh I'm so great it's not that it's that God's love is more than enough for me and it allows me to live and serve the people around me and so again even in you the midst of your greatest adversity like God's love is going to give you a restful and overflowing heart and you know I always try to think about analogies this is one analogy that I want to pose to you guys is a lot of us live our lives as iPhones so we wake up and you have you know a solid battery charge and through the day your battery charge gets less and less and less someone annoys you I had a tough you know workout or I had a long day at work battery goes lower and lower and then at some point it gets red and it comes on low battery 20% and then it gets lower and lower and what I think is there's a lot of people here that are actually living on low battery everyday living on fumes just trying to make it just trying to survive no room no extra to overflow not a restful heart filled with fear imprisoned by fear right and and what I like to post you guys is what happens if you guys could live as external chargers like external charges the nice ones that can charge multiple phones at once right what happens if you guys could live your life like that you don't have to be an iPhone on a low battery actually you can be an external charger and you can charge the people around you but you can only do that if you're connected to a power source and so for me being connected to God has given me a chance to be an external charger for the people around me and this past season I spent more time caring and loving and serving the people around me than I ever have and again it's not because of me like this is not coming from me an external charger would be dumb to brag about like oh I'm an external charge people cuz it's like yeah you're gonna run out too if you're not connected to a power source the real the rip the real person that should be getting that the glory is the power source and so for me I would do things that I've never really spent that much time doing before I was texting my teammates calling my coaches I remember we would go meet up with my team we were playing the Warriors and I basically was like I felt like a therapist I was just like meeting with teammates and coaches and hearing their problems and helping them work through it and giving them encouragement I remember I spent more time with homeless people the last this last season than I probably ever have and and I remember even in Vancouver while I was doing my rehab I would be walking down the street and maybe somebody that I would never notice before I started to notice them I'd be like hey he maybe he needs food but for me it's like easy to give a couple dollars it's easy to get them food I actually started trying to do things even outside of my comfort zone which is to sit down with them take them into a restaurant ask them how they're doing I actually have a meal with them and quite honestly in its its heart like it's embarrassing at times you know like because people are kind of looking around at you and and and you know there's a social stigma with all that and so but for me that was that was my overflow that was my ability that even in the midst of my greatest setback because I was connected to a power source I was able to continue to charge the people around me and so lots of tough questions that I asked myself and I'm about to wrap up a lot of tough questions that I had to ask myself and hopefully you guys are also asking these tough questions to yourself and the one thing I can say is suffering is inevitable like it's going to come your way at some point the question isn't the goal of life is not to find a life with the least resistance the goal is to find out how you are going to fight through and get through these that resistance that setback that obstacle how are you going to get through that but also in a way where you are living joyfully and restfully and so one verse that really meant a lot to me that we're gonna pull up on the screen is Matthew 11:28 2:30 it says come to me all you who are weary and burden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light and if you look if you look carefully at the verse the verse is not saying that you won't be tired the verse is saying that when you are tired you can find rest and again going back to my injury it's like that's gonna the equivalent of my injury will come everybody's way at some point so you will feel tired you will feel sad but even in those moments I continue to encourage everyone like for me I was able to find rest and so you know I just think that there are people here who are tired of running the race of life there are people that are living on empty battery there are people who feel like they're in a glass case and there are people that are just trying to survive and for me that was me for a long time and I lived that life even though on the outside looking in my life was perfect I've done a lot of amazing things in my career in terms of things that have never been done before and having that chance to you know blaze a different path and and pioneer different trail but even in those moments even in my highest moments of greatest worldly achievements I haven't felt very much on empty battery and even in my lowest of lows a relationship with God has given me an extremely restful and joyful heart and that's why I offered to come before you guys today and share my story if I if I wasn't at a place of rest and peace there's no way I would be up here talking about my injury and so thank you guys for taking the time let's just want to share a little bit of my heart [Music] I mean thank you so much for sharing right from your heart it's an amazing story it strikes me that you have found something that everyone is looking for but somehow you know you you know it's as if you found that the most precious thing and you're sharing it with us and you want everybody else to find it I mean that's really your heart here right it's amazing appreciate it yeah was a it was tough to prepare cuz yeah I do I explain this to the people you know my my business team is just every time I share or write it it feels like I lose a piece of my heart it's like I'm taking a piece of my heart out and I'm giving it out and so but I think it's something that you know I feel very strongly like that I should I should share and hopefully you guys are encouraged by it I think everyone should ponder this very carefully Jeremy and maybe I can just asked a very quick question something very deep must have happened in that 45-minute car journey right from the airport to your home right that completely I mean transformed your life almost suddenly right so could you share a little bit about what happened work was God speaking to you or you had some revelation or was it just you were just crying I mean what was going on there it wasn't like a supernatural voice or anything like that it was just more like there's a wrestling process and I've always found that faith is not something that it's not like a you go to a store and it's an exchange and you just pick it off the shelf like it's something that you really have to wrestle for fight for pursue and for me you know it's often times we go through our lives and we train and we train and train and when you're in the moment it's hard to really see you know maybe any growth it's like when you are living with you know I'm I live next door to my nephew and so it's hard for me to see him get taller but then when I go away for a long time and I come back I'm like dang and I would say that that car ride there was a definitely a wrestling process but even in the midst of it it was like when I was able to by the end of the car ride I just felt a tremendous peace I was like oh wow like yes steps have been made progress has been made I have matured to some degree or or you know God has given me another level of peace in my heart and I think you know sadly it took an injury for me to realize that but I guess that was definitely it was definitely a tumultuous car ride so I just want to ask the level of obsession that you described about your training in basketball like how does that work in your head that basketball doesn't become your God that's a great question I mean that is honestly that is kind of the golden question for me is something that I always had to continually check in my heart is that I am NOT replacing God with basketball even though you know and I think the way I've always seen it as I used to just see my life as a bunch of different buckets like you had basketball school family God but the older I get I see it more as an umbrella as God is this umbrella and all the buckets go underneath and so constantly having to check my heart that one of these subcategories is not becoming that umbrella and you know I think that's something that is again that's that's probably when I say the wrestling process or the fighting process it's really that of you know it's ironic because at the same time you pour everything you have but the harder and the more that you pour into something the harder is it is to let go of it and I think that's what faith has really taught me is the more that I invest and the more time that I wait and the more hours I spend in the gym it is harder and harder to let go and trust God with the end result but that is what you know I have to do and that is to some degree what I'm learning to do and the injury is yet another example of that thank you a question here hi so many things for you sherry and I have one question is how do you deal with the relationship with your teammate like you you have to cooperate with chatter but if you want to play court you also have to compete with each other how do you deal with a relationship I think it's a lot easier when you like them and I really like my teammates and and that's the one thing that I can say about Brooklyn is we have a lot of high character guys and our locker room is extremely close and that is very evident if you walked into our training any given day I mean it's I'm coming over here and I have teammates like a FaceTime me from Asia I want to see what it's like you know and and I think having that level of relationship with your teammates is it's easy to root for each other and you compete a lot on a day to day basis in terms of practice but you also know that you're competing at the end of the day to push each other because you're on the same ship basically you're trying to move this ship forward as far as you can but you guys have to go through some interpersonal conflict in practice to get there and that's totally okay thank you question here hi Jeremy I've seen your documentary linsanity a hundred times I remembered that that's more that's more than I've seen you know no but nobody thought he could play he had to fight for everything that he got already cut twice this season sleeping at his teammates couch because he got nowhere else I know you were recently Jeremy Lin is the toast of my hat I'm a big fan a super huge fan I see that amazing so you do and you inspired me a lot and I am really looking forward to your comback retiring next season so I have two questions the first one is how's your astrology different the next season for the next season that and the second one is because many buddies say that Warriors are making basketball losing is charm because they're too strong and you already know the end before the game ends what do you think [Applause] well first off that first question was extremely leading York heavily implying that I need to change things about my game but I agree one thing that we've worked on this entire year in my rehab process we're not just focusing on the knee we've refocused on being able to move completely differently so the way I stand the way I sit the way I walk upstairs the way I run jump shoot everything is different everything is healthier I'm not gonna bore you with the details of you know moving proximally or sinking into your you know your glutes instead of being you know you know heavily dependent on your tendons and your knees like there's a lot of scientific things but I've I have a tremendous rehab team around me and so there will definitely be differences in the way that I move but the way that I play will still be downhill attacking to the rim because that's who I am and that's kind of what I was saying earlier is if I'm afraid to do that then I don't really have an identity as a basketball player so the one thing I can say is I will continue to attack and go downhill but it will be you know with safer movements and then your second question oh yeah the one about the Warriors you know my high school one of my high school teachers always told me the greatest the the best thing about sports the most captivating thing about sports why everyone loves sports is because you have to play the game because you don't know what's gonna happen and so I think you know yes there are odds and there are probabilities but at the end of the day they are just odds and they're just probabilities and from you know the warrior standpoint oh yes they have the best chance to win they will probably win this year but if you went on odds alone then I wouldn't be in the NBA and if you want on probabilities alone then I want to be standing here today with a global platform and so I think that's the whole point of living life and playing sports and playing games is you're not so much focused on how great your opponent is or the probability or the odds you are trying to be the best version of you and you are trying to which is again when I say I want to be a great basketball player I'm not trying to stack up to somebody else I'm not trying to even beat somebody else I'm just trying to be the best version of me thank you okay question here hi Jeremy first wash for your sharing I've never had someone wear my jersey like that yeah we might we might have do me a favor to have little grateful little thing to do on mine Jesse you sign it tonight for me that's is that the question yeah first question actually I'm on you remember what C was on the ABC right okay let's get to the question yeah my second question actually I'm the captain of medical college basketball team today and I better sign your Jersey tonight with my good teammate Edward terrific basketball league season this year we good player but he had a bad knee injury last week so this season was gone his knees do swollen he came in tonight with crutch we might say some words of encouragement to him yeah where are you at oh yeah sorry to hear about that but uh you know wait why is their own laughing I'm genuinely sorry about that but uh about your knee injury but I'm hoping that what I shared tonight isn't it was like a 30-minute encouragement for you you know even in in those situations like like if there's anyone who knows how you're feeling it's me so we're finding that same battle trying to find that same peace and fill that void in our hearts and so I'll be rooting for you okay remember the ABCs okay question hello Jeremy thank you for your sharing and as you have described I think you found that life is much bigger than basketball so I want to ask you what's in life after basketball for you for me I have a foundation which is I went to you know in college I studied econ in sociology primarily so that I could be great with my foundation if I ever had one or be able to do nonprofit work understanding why communities are the way they are how do you help poor communities things like that and so that's what I'm going to spend a lot of my attention on I could see myself doing other things you know on the side and maybe you know a couple you know being a part of some TV shows I like making fun of YouTube videos as you've seen or things like that maybe a little bit of sharing my story I don't know if I would be like a public speaker but more just like today like kind of just sharing my story my experiences I feel like there's a few things on the table for me but definitely my foundation thank you I already have I have VGA so we have a I don't won't bore you guys I have a china team and a North America team and they're both doing pretty well right now and but could potentially be at ti so yeah that's already that's already happened cool question here hi Jeremy thanks for sharing I'm going to bring the question a bit and you know in other direction do you have a girlfriend I couldn't get married [Applause] uh-huh a B I mean that's the goal but again you know people ask me this a lot when and why not and why haven't you and yeah it's not really one of those things that you just walk down the street and you're like I'm gonna get married today let's make it happen so in God's timing I'm sure a lot of girls are waiting for that question here hello Jeremy I have two questions first I only ask for your downs up and down and on a downs did you have a criticize God for the downs and if you do how do you overcome that and the second question is for those I'm sorry it's cool don't worry that such a good question yeah honest yes I think everybody doesn't matter how you know faithful or whatever there will be times where you asked really tough questions you and I think I would compare it to maybe when I fight with my parents maybe we disagree but at the end of the day we always get back to a place of everything my parents are doing come from a place from of love and I think that's kind of what I meant when I said perfect love casts out fear in the sense that like even in my greatest times of complaint or criticism or when I'm yelling or screaming at God I know that his love is the source of everything that happens in my life and so even if it's not what I want to see when I let go of my emotions and calm down a little bit I get back to understanding that hey he loves me and he wouldn't give me something if it wasn't ordained or out of his love and that's something that I've always held on to in a lot of situations in my career yes bein draft did it did this this fact and ever makes your career different you're saying being being in the in the draft undrafted yes did is I mean it's it's just a microcosm of kind of my career or growing up in the States being Asian and playing basketball in the sense that just like yeah maybe fighting a little bit harder for everything I got and not always getting that opportunity the first time around I personally felt like in my draft workouts I would played more than well enough to get drafted but I didn't think a lot of teams were ready to maybe didn't fully believe it yet and but I think again part of my story I embrace it I don't mind it at the time I was pissed I went in ahead went right after the NBA Draft me and my family went to wing stopping ate a hundred wings because I was so angry and but it's true story we were I was so upset that no one chose me I just couldn't understand it but again it's part of the story right thank you question here hi Germans pleasure to meet you offender for sharing know you've been undrafted and ye even slap on language fields couch during the time you claim next and then you're now or on the player in Brooklyn Nets so what's your advices to young players you know they got that potential but who yet to be recognized by coaches but really ones that up that game and won the Coppa delle rather to get that rotation and get some more minutes I've my high school coach has a very prominent saying that always rings in my head and he always has said the cream will always rise to the top meaning that the cream was right you know that's self-explanatory but what it really means is the best will always over time it may take longer it may not be right away but the best will always get to the top and show that they are the best and so if a player is the best and they're not showing and they're not in a position right now to fully showcase that the cream will always rise to the top it's kind of what I think about even I mean even today or whatever I've thought about that many times in my career of like feeling unappreciated or not feeling like I've had maybe the circumstances to give me my to allow me to reach my fullest potential but even in those moments you can't just blame everybody else right like you have to like for me it was like alright well I think I can be deserving of more playing time or having more plays run free but it's not so what am I gonna do about it how am I gonna get better how am I gonna improve the more time I spend complaining about somebody else the less time I spend improving my myself and so that's something that I would say to them thank you thank you question here first of all my son happens to be named Jeremy that's a tight named by chance my question is amongst your former NBA teammates who inspired you the most who was the most mentally strong hmm that's a good question I actually would say I could answer that question but I think there's a better answer there was actually I played in this in this how do you say just like uh during the lockout the NBA lockout I played overseas in this like small tournament and I played on the team I played on a CBA team for like three or four games just to you know basically continue to work on my game while the the NBA was on the lockout and I ran into a player on my team called Joshua cogman and and he's a tremendous CBA player but the conversation that I had with him was basically how do you have confidence to keep shooting even when you're not making shots and which is something I really struggled with my rookie year was like hey I don't want again it's playing to not lose versus playing to win like I was playing to not have a bad game and to not make mistakes but his whole thing was like aim the averages will always average themselves out I know what a good shot is I've trained really hard I've worked on these shots I know I can hit these shots so I don't really worry so much about if the shot went in I worry more about whether that shot was a good shot and if it's a good shot it means like I know that I can hit this shot I know I'm supposed to shoot that shot and so for me that's something that I really carried into the next year in New York was like and and and I carry into my career is like I could be over ten but if on that 11th shot I know it's a shot that I should take I can take I can make then I'm gonna take it and whether it goes in or not is not always you know the most important thing and I feel like that was another level of maybe mental fortitude that I had not gotten to and so when he shared that with me I was like you know what the averages do average themselves out it's like betting against the casino at a certain point the averages will always average themselves out and so I always try to keep that in mind okay question here Susan e Hager I have gained a lot of encouragement and power from your story and your experience yeah and I have two questions but you could just answer one of him because why have you ever lose your faith in your heart so cutting two is have you ever lose love are you talking romantically or for other people or love for the game maybe from from your friend or from your girlfriend okay I'm glad you gave me a choice to choose I will go with the first question wait hold up I forgot the first question was have you ever lost faith oh yeah I mean I would definitely say there are shorter temporary moments where yes I didn't feel yeah I've probably I've lost faith and maybe one example is when I cleaned out my locker in Houston and I was like you know what this isn't for me this isn't right like you've got this whole thing wrong you are mistaken this is not where I'm supposed to be so in definitely moments and there have been moments where I was gonna quit but my family and friends didn't let me and made me continue to play on and so definitely times where you know you lose faith I don't the most important thing is to be superhuman and never lose faith I think it's getting yourself back to a place where you regain that faith and you are able to continue which is kind of the whole point of this thing is you know we're we're you know it's called never done is how do you have that never done mentality and and even to you know what you're saying is there are times where you will feel like being done but how do you get yourself back to a place where you continue to fight on it Jeremy how many more questions can you take what's your energy level okay so we're a little bit over so maybe I'll just take five more questions five more okay cool sorry for everybody standing in line but basically the first three on this side and then two on that side I'm really sorry okay hello Jeremy as I'm also connected with their power source as well I hope to recharge you so I prepare the I drop and they're so the throws soothing candy for you as you have answered loss of our questions so I hope your voice will never done as well and your eyes ooh as you are cutting everyone tries so I will send it to you later and my first question is if you step out of this room today if you meet Jesus today what will be your question oh that's a heavy hitter but yeah you can actually pass the you see there's candy I know you don't have to but honestly you don't have to send it will just get I know I have a few of my friends and team members around but though someone will come find you and grab it look at that the question I would ask him the first question I would ask him is how did I do and in the Bible you know there's a passage that talks about you know God saying well done my good and faithful servant and so that's something I think a lot about is if I saw Jesus face to face today what would he say to me so that'd be my first question is how did I do hopefully I lived I'm not asking to be perfect I'm not asking that he expects me to be perfect I'm just hoping that I did what I could with what I was given I guess you really try your best so just don't put too much pressure on yourself don't worry I'm feeling pretty I'm just I'm very joyful every day it's not it's not like yeah thanks mom question here okay hi Jamie thanks for your sharing Jamie imagine this time tunnel you now go back I can tell why this is a Harvard of Hong Kong you guys are seriously seriously intellectual questions continue with the ok time warp tunnel okay you go back which parts of your life or basketball life you would like to restart again are you saying to relive or to retry over retry over I would say the first five years of my NBA career my biggest regret in my entire life my biggest regret in my life is that my first five years I was so focused on what I wanted to achieve that I wasn't able to enjoy what I had and so if I could relive those five years I would definitely enjoy every moment even for me enjoying this rehab process has been a very big goal because I know I've wasted so much time not enjoying the blessings that God has given me and for me to be in the NBA and to not appreciate that will forever be my life's biggest regret I hope I don't do anything worse than that thank you thank you we're adding a sixth question ICU question here oh hi big fan of yours came all the way from Korea to see you wait you flew from Korea to for this event you're a beast that's awesome thank you yeah my question is you've been the leader throughout your life and the game of basketball you're like the point guard you're the go-to guy so like what is your mindset and what do you tell your team as a leader in the court that you could you to be the to be confident to win the game against the teams that are like evaluated to be better than yours I would say the job of every leader is to make the people around them better not for you to be the best version of yourself that actually isn't the definition of a leader I think the lead the best leaders are the ones who make everyone around them better and so for me what that looks like is to try to instill confidence in each and every single one of my teammates but I see each person as a different puzzle and so to solve this puzzle requires a different answer than to solve that puzzle some players I can get super animated and yell at them and that's how I get the best out of them other players is a very soft tone and it's very I'm catering to you how are you feeling I know you're upset how can I help you can I get you a play can I get you the ball in the block where do you want it do you want it do you want on the left wing you want on the left block like so each person is a different puzzle and there's a different way to get the best out of each person and so that's what I think about and honestly even there's been times when I've been down 30 in a game but the whole point is you're still trying to get the best out of your teammates so okay we're down 30 with a minute and a half left we all know we're gonna lose but how do we in this minute and a half make sure that we don't waste it and how can we get better because I'm gonna tell you one thing I've seen stuff happen in the last minute or two minutes of a blowout game that unlocks something that will help be helpful and can start a winning streak for the next seven games so never trying to waste those those opportunities Thanks that was a really point guard like yes sir thank you thanks for flying over from Korea man how many more questions do we have we got these two and one over here all right okay hey Jeremy thanks for the amazing talk you're an inspiration to our generation and to many here in this audience everyone's been asking you really profound questions I just wanted to ask you who's your favorite teammate of all time and was it like to share your love of God with your teammates I think you know favorite is tough to define I would say that you know some of my closest friends are like Steve Novak Landry even you know Ronde on my team right now and and other guys are really I'm still really close with you know I think the best teammate I always consistently say that's the best teammate I've ever had is probably Jared Jeffries and Marvin Williams because they were the guys who when someone was really struggling they would take that guy out to eat or when someone wasn't you know shooting well they would be like amen don't ever pass up that shot but they were the players that they were the glue guys that were consistently aware of everyone else's issues and just trying to keep the team together so it just depends how you define that that question question here so I have two questions first one during a rehab process have you ever lost that piece that you talked about and if yes how did you deal with it second question if I'm already happy about my life why do I need Jesus that's a really good question first question is no I haven't lost my piece and the second for the second question I would say that there are there are a lot of situations or a lot of people who may be very happy with what they have today but that doesn't mean that there will come something that will happen like potentially a circumstance that will again so I guess let me let me use an analogy so if your house is built on a not stable foundation if there isn't a storm around you you can stand and you can be fine but when that storm comes and you get completely blown over what is going to happen and so sometimes you may people may think like oh this is I'm fine I'm cool I'm happy but I can tell you that's like marriage right like there's times where people they get married today but 40 years down the road 30 years down the road when things change when life change when things come and like sometimes it's not even adversity it's just sometimes you time just time right but at a certain point like I would also you know at a certain point I feel like that void will come become more and more apparent and again I kind of talked about the two catalysts being completely getting what you think is your you know utmost desire and then having your greatest setback as kind of the two catalysts that have really asked me those tough questions and I guess the last thing I would say to that is maybe you are very satisfied today but maybe you don't know that there's a better there you can even live life more fully and so you know I would say are you familiar with fast food in the States fast food in the States fast food so it's like if you ate McDonald's you're like McDonald's is good but then I was like come to California try in-and-out burger and you're like I never knew that there was in an out burger I probably don't want to go back to McDonald's and I know that's like a light light-hearted way to share what I'm actually talking about but that is what I'm talking about is maybe you are fine with your Big Mac but you don't realize there's a double-double animal style that will blow your mind and so I think that's you know how I would probably answer that question thank you the last question my man Joe since I know I finally over gonna alternate how come young son young leg or something come in Cumberland I'm sorry welcome to Hong Kong think I'm just thankful for how God has been is and will continue to use you and your life to just spread his glory his light his gospel so praise God for that and I personally on a personal note I'm really grateful my self a lot of gratitude towards God for allowing us to have a friendship because I think for the first time in 36 this year that I can honestly say that one of my friends is also one of my heroes so I'll make sure I slide you that check no check no but thank you man and and on the and and as an honor to have the final question of the night I do want to ask you something that I find very serious and I think a lot of the young people here will agree who is your favorite rapper of all time and you could be you could be honest you could be honest so my name is oh you're anything depending on how you want to answer it I'll be honest though of all time yeah favorite rapper I do want to know honestly I didn't I didn't plant gin to come and give me that but I will take some time because he I mean he's from here and he has done a great job representing Hong Kong so let me just when I talked earlier about a charger that's a charger right there like I know and I'm serious likewise likewise like what this guy is one of the realest guys and and man his spirit when I say like people who come in the room and you just feel joy you feel you feel their heart you have a contagious spirit you know that charger type thing glory to God yes sir all day yes sir but I think one thing that me and Jin have constantly really resonated on as we've our friendship has evolved through the years is we've both gone through tremendous highs and also tremendous lows and we've seen exactly what I was talking about he knows you know just as well maybe even more so to answer your question though and I'm gonna be completely honest you my favorite rapper of all time is probably probably Drake well with that you respect my honesty but I will tell you that if I could choose top five and you know you already know I'm a fan of your music because that's how we met and I already said that publicly and so people know I love his music but one of the top five I'm not joking one of the top five songs I have ever heard and will continue to listen to is like a rock that's that's by him so if you haven't heard it you got to go in here it's it's like it's on the all-time playlist for me that is something that like rock man when you're going through it well Jeremy you know that the motto for Hong Kong you is wisdom and virtue and you've modeled that for us this evening so students you know this guy I should be your role model because really he embodies what Hong Kong you should be about that knowledge is not just about information but transformation and we really believe that leadership is not about just being clever but having a good character and you've really shown that do they say thank you so much journey cliche thank you guys for your time wait wait wait wait wait wait there is one thing that we haven't done did anybody's mobile phone go off today no all right so we still have to do this thing because I promise we have this ball so um you have to shout for this right the the the side of the includes the back here you know whoever makes the loudest noise Jeremy will throw it there alright here we go it's not loud enough okay ladies and gentlemen Jeremy Lin thank you and good night

Channel: Faith HKU

Views: 81,013

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Id: dBcxmsWvFqk

Length: 82min 40sec (4960 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 09 2018