Former NBA player Jeremy Lin on if Chinese Basketball Association will resume season: 'We're kind of in limbo'

At least Jeremy Lin can train. He no longer has to remain in self-quarantine.

Lin has spent the last two weeks in Beijing living with uncertainty. He has practiced daily with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. Yet, he has no idea if the CBA will resume play after it suspended its season because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"We're basically just waiting until June to decide whether we play in July or not," Lin told USA TODAY Sports from Beijing. "That's the current situation. We're kind of in limbo right now."

Lin has become used to uncertainty. He went undrafted before joining the Golden State Warriors (2010-11), which led to “Linsanity” with the New York Knicks (2011-12). He then had uneven experiences with the Houston Rockets (2012-14), Los Angeles Lakers (2015-16), Charlotte Hornets (2015-16) and Brooklyn Nets (2018-19) before winning his first NBA championship as a reserve with the Toronto Raptors last season.

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That nomadic NBA career hardly compares, however, to what Lin experienced in the last four months. He played his last game with the Beijing Ducks on Jan. 21 before the CBA took a scheduled break for the Chinese New Year (Jan. 25). So Lin vacationed at an undisclosed area. He heard from CBA officials that the vacation would be extended, so Lin then went to his home in Palo Alto, Calif. A day later, Lin learned that former teammate Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash.

While grieving, Lin remained on call in case he needed to return to China. That moment did not happen until March 18, a week after the NBA suspended its own season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Lin then spent the two weeks in self-quarantine.

"A lot of the distractions and the false sense of securities that everyone used to have, a lot of that has been stripped away and taken away," Lin said. "The whole world has been humbled. We’re starting to really understand how human we are and how small we are and how little control we have. That’s how I would describe 2020."

A day before leaving the U.S., Lin expressed his displeasure on Twitter with President Donald Trump referring to COVID-19 as "the Chinese virus" since it originated in Wuhan. The Players Tribune then published Lin’s first-person account last week that described how Trump’s words influenced various attacks against Asian-Americans.

"I don’t want any ethnic group or people group to be attacked or to have to deal with the racism," Lin said. "If there is something that is aiding that, that would compel me to speak out. At that moment in time, I felt like a lot of Asian-Americans were being attacked and are still being attacked."

The Chinese government has also sparked criticism for how it handled the COVID-19 outbreak, including shielding information about infections and deaths as well as detaining medical workers. Lin declined to address those criticisms, saying, "I'm not the most politically savvy and I'm not super engaged in politics."

"I’m careful that when I speak on something, I try to speak out if I'm knowledgeable or a quote-unquote expert on it," Lin said. "But at this point, I don’t really have anything that I would consider to be (an expert). I can’t confidently speak out on this because I don't feel like I’m an expert."

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Instead, Lin has channeled his efforts elsewhere. He has pledged $500,000 to support those impacted by COVID-19 through Feeding America (a U.S.-based food bank network) and Direct Relief (which provides protective equipment to healthcare workers around the world). He said he will also match all donations up to $500,000. According to his foundation's website, the initiative has raised $137,072 as of Tuesday night. Lin said he plans to give those matched donations to another charity that both parties want to help.

Otherwise, Lin has spent the rest of his time on the basketball court and in the weight room.

"Everyone is trying to train hard and prepare themselves for the future," Lin said. "Everyone also understands we have a chance to play basketball and we have a lot of places where people can’t really leave their houses and can’t really get on a court. So for us to be able to have that, we should be really grateful for it."

Lin also expressed gratitude that his family remains healthy. His parents and younger brother are in Taipei, Taiwan, while his older brother and sister-in-law are in Brooklyn. While they have mostly stayed home other than trips to the grocery store, Lin said that Beijing "is returning back to normal" with malls and restaurants reopening their business.

It has not become normal enough though for the CBA to know when or if it will have a season. In a conference call last week, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that deputy commissioner Mark Tatum has had "direct contact" with CBA officials, including former Houston Rockets star and league chairman Yao Ming.

"There are discussions, active discussions in China about a return to play protocol," Silver said. "We are attempting to learn from them. It sounds like, the best my information is, it’s not quite there yet in terms of the precise conditions they would need in playing without fans."

Lin would much rather play games without fans than not play at all.

"I don’t mind it. I love the game," Lin said. "I want to play. Fans or no fans, that’s not going to impact how I play. It’s not going to affect me. I want to compete and I love the game. I miss it."

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