Video: Jeremy Lin Tears Up About Free Agency, Feels NBA Has Given Up on Him

Free-agent guard Jeremy Lin teared up during an appearance in Taiwan over the weekend, saying he feels the NBA has given up on him as a player.

"There's a saying, and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up, but rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me," Lin said in a talk for Christian outlet Good TV (beginning at the 12:31 mark). 

"So, free agency has been tough. Because I feel like, in some ways, the NBA has kind of given up on me. I always knew if I gave anyone a reason to doubt, they would."

Lin, 30, split last season with the Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors. He averaged 9.6 points and 3.1 assists on 44.0 percent shooting but was taken out of the Raptors rotation during the playoffs, appearing in only eight games.

After the Raptors won the championship, Lin told the Off The Pill podcast that he struggled with whether he "deserved" the ring:

"There were times in all honesty where I felt I had to tell myself I deserve a championship. As a competitor who plays and has played my whole life, I'm not used to not playing, so I was like, 'This is tough, do I really deserve it?'

"Then I started to think about my whole journey and I definitely do. I contributed to the team, I played 23 games in the regular season. I play against these guys all the time, whether it's in workouts or whatever, even watching the game and talking to guys, giving my opinion, being a voice. That's very, very valuable. In terms of staying ready and working out, I worked really, really hard this year."

Injuries have played a large part in Lin's downfall from the NBA's most talked-about player to valuable role player to barely hanging on in the league. He played in only 37 games in two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets because of injury, including a ruptured patellar tendon in 2017-18. The patellar injury was serious enough to make some wonder if Lin could be the same level of player, and he clearly struggled when he was on the floor last year.

Odds are he'll have to take a veteran's minimum contract to have a chance at making an NBA roster this season.