Jeremy Lin received the team call after dinner at around 7 pm on February 7.
At around three o'clock in the afternoon, he had just finished an NBDL game. He played for the Bakersfield Jam against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
When Min Chongda was the head coach, Jeremy Lin occasionally had the opportunity to enter the 12-point roster and get some playing time.
After Tyronn Lue replaced Min Tsung-tat to take charge of the Clippers, although he pursued the strategic policy of "everyone has the ball to play", he was unable to do what Min Tsung-tat did, where each of the 15 players could take a turn.
He was transferred to the Development League and became a member of the Jam team. He competed in the NBDL with other players who were transferred by NBA teams. While maintaining his condition, he worked hard to express himself in order to get called up by the home team.
As a very rare Asian face in the league, Jeremy Lin has been subject to various prejudices both on and off the court since he was a child.
"Fortunately", after entering the NBA, he met Min Congda. After Min Congda selected him, he actually gave him a guaranteed contract, which allowed him to play and train with peace of mind on the team.
You can live in your own apartment and train as if you were commuting to get off work every day. If you have the opportunity, you can go to Staples Center to play or watch.
Therefore, even if he is just wandering on the edge of the league, Jeremy Lin is very grateful to Min Congda.
He was born into a Christian family and believes in God, but in the NBA he believes in Min Congda even more. He knows that this man will definitely be a legend.
Looking at what he has done and the team he has built, Jeremy Lin can foresee that this will be a great team. He can be a member of a great team and feels proud and satisfied in his heart.
Of course, he is also waiting for an opportunity. In this team where "everyone has a ball to play", he firmly believes that he will have a time to shine.
In the game between the Jam and the River Valley Vipers, Jeremy Lin performed well, scoring 21 points, 3 of 4 three-pointers, and won the best player of the game.
During the time he entered the league, Jeremy Lin never relaxed his training.
Especially with the guaranteed contract given by Min Congda, he cherished this opportunity even more and trained hard.
Last summer, when the NBA was suspended, he was invited to go to China to participate in some business activities.
However, although Jeremy Lin is known as the "Chinese NBA guard", he actually has no reputation and no domestic fan groups. He just comes to participate in some activities and see if there are any opportunities to play.
After arriving in China, Jeremy Lin's only request to the event organizer was that he hope to have a standard basketball court and gym for him to train.
The organizer was relatively poor and did not have a professional or standard venue. They had to rent a time slot in a local school gymnasium for Jeremy Lin to train.
Therefore, Jeremy Lin meticulously completed his training program in the school gymnasium between participating in activities. He did not relax his requirements at all just because he went abroad to engage in business activities.
He had been waiting for the opportunity to change his destiny and repay that man.
The call from the Clippers was from assistant coach Kim Hughes. He informed Jeremy Lin on the phone that the team had bought him a ticket to Cleveland and asked him to fly over immediately to participate in tomorrow night's game.
Jeremy Lin had just finished eating and was about to do some exercise to promote digestion, and then make a call to his father and mother.
After receiving the notice, he immediately changed his clothes, grabbed some changes of clothes, and drove to the airport.
When the team started their road trip, Jeremy Lin felt disappointed.
His teammates went on an away trip, but he could only stay in California to participate in the NBDL game, and then watch his teammates' performances on TV.
The Clippers' defense line is still very strong.
Needless to say, Curry and Harden are the starters. Dragic is full of the spirituality of European players, and Derek Fisher is a legendary role player with honors and rings on his hand.
Compared with them, Jeremy Lin felt that he had no chance of getting ahead at all.
Fortunately, the Clippers pursue a very stable player policy and a "everyone has the ball to play" strategy.
Most other NBA teams like to use ten-day short contracts to fill their rosters, constantly try out and use marginal players to deal with possible injuries and emergencies during the season.
To put it bluntly, I just like to use temporary workers.
One of the advantages of using temporary workers is that they save money, as they do not take up salary space and are cheaper to hire.
Another thing is to be able to establish a good cooperative relationship with those brokers, which also involves some transfer of interests and favor exchanges.
Some good players work part-time jobs throughout their lives, receiving short contracts one after another.
Some players who have no chance to play at all can get a pretty good guaranteed contract and happily guard the water fountain. There are inevitably some tricks in this.
The Clippers are not like that. Compared with other teams, the Clippers are simply an NBA state-owned enterprise.
There are no temporary workers, and each contract is guaranteed. For someone like Curry who was injured and verbally renewed his contract in advance, it was just a matter of finding a staff for him.
Because for Min Congda, a short contract with high quality and low price is not what he wants at all.
Every guaranteed contract may become the last steamed bun that will burst the salary space in the future.
As for the transfer of benefits and the exchange of favors, there is no such thing. These things have nothing to do with Min Congda.
In the Clippers team, he can only earn money from losses, bankruptcy, and fines, and other money has nothing to do with him.
Therefore, as the general manager, he is quite fair and honest, and all agents who want to have a relationship with him will step aside.
In this way, Jeremy Lin could gain a foothold in the Clippers, and then because of the "everyone has a ball to play" strategy, Jeremy Lin was immediately recalled after Dragic was missing.
In fact, without Dragic and relying on Fisher, the Clippers' backcourt rotation will be no problem.
Besides, Harden and Ricky Davis are both good at holding the ball in the backcourt. How can Jeremy Lin have a chance to play?
"Hey~ It would be great if the head coach is still Mr. Smart. If he is here, I will definitely get playing time."
Jeremy Lin recalled that at the beginning of the season, he also gained the trust of Min Congda and played more than 10 minutes in two games.
It's a pity that Jeremy Lin is still a bit young, his performance is average, and he doesn't have any outstanding performances.
Later, Tyronn Lue takes over, and Jeremy Lin has played no more than 5 minutes in total so far.
And he basically plays in garbage time, so what chance does he have to perform?
With some excitement and most doubts, Lin successfully boarded a flight to Cleveland.
The plane landed in the early morning of the 8th. When I came out of the airport and turned on my mobile phone, Jeremy Lin received a call.
It was Sloan, the team's security chief, who called and said there was a car waiting for him in parking lot 3 of the airport.
"Oh~ there is a special car to pick me up? It's really troublesome for you, it's so late."
Jeremy Lin was a little surprised. He thought he would take a taxi to the hotel, but he didn't expect a driver to pick him up.
"This is my job. Mr. Smart ordered me to arrange each player's schedule well so as not to affect your performance on the field."
Sloan has taken a lot of money from Min Congda in the past two years.
The previous payment has been settled, and now the expenses are sufficient for any small work.
The cost of the last trip to the Great Western Forum to cause trouble had casually doubled, much to Sloan's gratitude.
Faced with such a big customer, how could Sloan not do a good job in serving players?
Even a water dispenser manager must clearly arrange his schedule and not affect his status.
Even if this player may not appear at all in the evening game.
Jeremy Lin knew that this was Min Congda's arrangement, and his respect for him became even stronger.
"Smart is definitely the best basketball manager in history."
Some people died, but not completely...
