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Jeremy Lin Declares Retirement After 15 Years of Professional Basketball
Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who was a worldwide media sensation during the New York Knicks’ incredible seven-game winning streak in 2012 called “Linsanity,” has officially announced his retirement from professional basketball after 15 years of playing basketball.
>The Instagram post he made on August 30 explaining his decision recorded it as the most challenging moment in his career.
“We are, as athletes, always conscious that retirement will come,” Lin said. “I have done this for 15 years knowing that the day would come when I would stop, but letting go of basketball now is the hardest decision for me.”
>Lin also played overseas in China and Taiwan after leaving the NBA, where he had been a nine-season journeyman, playing for multiple teams including the Knicks, Rockets, and Raptors. Nevertheless, his contribution remains to be the breakthrough in New York, which consequently led to the worldwide fans’ appreciation of his underdog story.
>On the other hand, Lin did not let go of the competition and was full of gratitude for the journey and anticipation for the future.
Jeremy Lin Reminisces Over His Hoops Journey
On top of that, the 37-year-old, whose career is most likely associated with the phenomenon that was “Linsanity” that he made New York Knicks in 2012, not only sketched out his career but also the people he encountered along the way.
“It really has been such a privilege to be in the most grueling situations right under the glaring lights and to challenge the universe’s assumptions about what a guy like me could do,” Lin said. “Essentially, I have been able to fulfill my youth dreams of playing basketball all over the globe in front of huge crowds.”
A Farewell Filled With Gratitude
Even as Jeremy decided to retire from professional basketball, he admitted that playing basketball will always be something he remembers with pride. Jeremy, who was initially the Harvard graduate who went undrafted in 2010 and subsequently joined Dallas Mavericks’ Summer League team, shares basketball as one of the most vibrant moments of his life.
“Line is also forever the kid who felt completely alive every time he got hold of a basketball,” Lin reminisced.
Moreover, he was very grateful to the people who supported him while he was on his way. “There is a great number of people who have sacrificed and poured into my journey, way too much for me to even think of repaying. Thank you for believing in me, for walking with me, for celebrating my highs and lifting me up through my lows.”
Signing off His Career with Great Success
His decision to retire is only a few days after the New Taipei Kings’ consecutive championship wins. Besides the fact that he was bestowed the Most Valuable Player award for the whole season of the league, he was also selected as the Taiwan Pro Basketball League Finals MVP when his team won the title.
“It has been an amazing journey, and I never wanted to stop, but now it is time,” said Lin. “I will miss playing basketball in front of you all, but our bond is stronger than before. To the future!”
Nic Fink: Balancing the Pathway of Engineering and Olympic Dreams
Following his first Olympic appearance in Tokyo, Nic Fink decided to study for a master’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering at Georgia Tech which he completed in December 2022. He later started working off-site at Quanta Utility Engineering in Dallas.
>Once he became a father (with his wife and fellow Olympic swimmer Melanie Margalis Fink), he took advantage of the great flexibility and made it to the podium for the first time in Paris where he won a silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke.
>”I was ready to step into different areas while still trying to keep my swimming at a high level,” Nic told ESPN. “In my opinion, having the job is really good for me to separate my life and keep everything in order.”
Gabby Thomas: Sprinting Toward Gold While Giving Back
If anyone manages to be one of the fastest women in the world and at the same time be a great help to others, it must be sprinter Gabby Thomas.
>Graduate from Harvard with a master of public health and epidemiology from the University of Texas, Thomas, not only does she volunteer at a clinic for uninsured patients in Austin, but also she took the 2024 Olympics by storm as the gold medal favorite in the 200 meters.
>Though she got bronze in the 200m and silver in the 4x100m relay at the Tokyo Olympics, Thomas was once convinced that her career path would be in healthcare. She said to E! News that pursuing track was never certain, even as she qualified for Paris. “Being on the Olympic team is not a given.”
However, when the scenario of a choice between her loved things came before her, she rejected it. “I came to a point where I thought, Do I have to make a choice? And then I realized, no—I’ve always been able to do exactly what I wanted. So I told myself, ‘I’m gonna do it all!’”
Canyon Barry: Venturing Off the Court
Canyon Barry with the help of degrees in physics and nuclear engineering has managed to keep his athletic and academic worlds in harmony. Now as a successful systems engineer at the defense and space contractor L3 Harris Technologies, the 6-foot-5 guard made his Olympic debut with the U.S. 3×3 basketball team in Paris.
“For me, having a career I love and an identity outside sports means a lot,” Barry told the Associated Press. “I know when the ball eventually stops bouncing, I have a career that I love—one that brings me fulfillment for the rest of my life.”
Nevertheless, his competitive nature is still very distinct. “I want to return to the office with a gold medal, let everyone hold it, take pictures, and maybe gain a little immortality,” he said.
Morelle McCane: Fighting Her Way to Paris
Morelle McCane aged 17, has been known to work as a birthday party clown, a daycare supervisor, and a mailroom clerk, among many other things, but all that was to fund her dream of being an Olympian. She was rewarded for that stubbornness in 2024 when she became the first female boxer from Cleveland to qualify for the Games.
>”Sometimes you have to simply find just what is available for you at the moment,” the 29-year-old told the Houston Chronicle. “Normally, the good-paying jobs require that you be there for a long time, so I had to grab whatever was available to me quickly just to have some income coming in.”
However, regardless of the side jobs, Morelle was always thinking about Paris. “Once I enter the fight, it’s my time to show off,” the welterweight, competing in the 66kg category, told USA Boxing. “The fact that I am having fun during the fight is why I am at my peak—because the intensity is there, the focus is there, but so is the breath of relaxation that you need.”
Zachery Schubert: From the Sand to the Cricket Farm
When he isn’t hitting volleyballs over the net, Australian Olympian Zachery Schubert runs a very different kind of team – millions of crickets. He operates Schubugs Cricket Farm on his family’s property where the insects are being used as a clean source of protein.
However, Schubert still maintains that he is not trying to turn the world into full-time insect consumers. “It’s not like we’re forcing people to eat bugs in every single meal,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s just a protein booster. I’m definitely not a bug fanatic.”
In the usual scenario, his father looks after the farm when Zachery is on the road. But with the elder Schubert off in Paris for his son’s Olympics debut, a family friend has stepped in to keep the crickets fed and chirping.
Robbie Manson: Rowing Outside the Lines
New Zealand rower Robbie Manson has been a sensation not only in rowing but also in the media by disclosing that he supports his sporting career by setting up an OnlyFans account.
>Manson, who returned from retirement to compete in his third Olympics, told Reuters, “I get more than double what I would be on otherwise as an athlete—read into that what you will, but I am making more from OnlyFans than I am from rowing at this stage. I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well be upfront about it—and also be known for the cliché that any publicity can be good publicity.”
>He confesses that the route is not for everyone but he sees the potential for others to follow: “That is definitely a goldmine for other athletes.”
Ellen Geddes: From Foals to Foils
At the age of 23, a car crash in 2012 caused spinal cord injury to Ellen Geddes and as a result, she got paralyzed. Hence her equestrian career ended abruptly. However, later that year she came across wheelchair fencing and by the next year (2013) she was already competing at the Wheelchair World Championships.
>Still, she is the owner of two horse farms, Maplewood Farm and Bridlewood Farm, in Aiken, S.C. and is the breeding director at Magnolia Sport Horses, but she Geddes manages to keep her passion for horse riding and her desire to compete abroad simultaneously. She will be competing first at the Paris Paralympics, starting August 28, this summer.
>”I was me just wonderful beyond belief to secure my first Paralympic spot [in 2021], but I guess I had bigger expectations and dreams than what I managed to reach,” she said to the Lexington County Chronicle. “Therefore, we are doing it again for 2024.”
Besides, she has plans of getting back to fencing and training hard. She confessed that “I certainly do struggle with balance. At the moment, I am concentrating a lot more on fencing than on the horses and the farms.”
Alyssa Bull: Firefighting and Fast Waters
If Alyssa “Aly” Bull couldn’t be a firefighter in the first place, the Australian Olympian might still be a world-class canoeist, no doubt.
>Bull made her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016 and, two years later, decided to work at Queensland Fire and Rescue Service. It was never easy for her to juggle intensive training with her unstable shifts—a schedule that, as she told ABC Australia, mainly consisted of “two day shifts, two night shifts and then four days off.” She credits her coach, Rene Olsen, with having been her rock of support and even accompanying her on the water at 4 a.m. before her shifts.
For Aly, the one thing common between firefighting and paddling is trust. “Whether they’re sitting in a boat in front or behind you, or whether they’re sitting in the back seat about to go to an incident, you’ve got to fully trust their skills,” she explained. ”Helping someone out of a car crash or paddling in unison to cross the finish line, teamwork is everything.”
Maria Liana Mutia: Coding By Working Hours, Competing By Evening
Maria Liana Mutia is always a person who is in a mental process mode—whether she is breaking down the systems of company X as a software analyst or preparing her next para judo move.
>Her day consists of a workout, work, and training with each of them lasting for, respectively, one hour, nine hours, and two hours. “I am not a very strong person, and I am not very aggressive either. I’m just a smart fighter,” said Maria Liana Mutia to TeamUSA.com. “I always try to find the proper reaction in front of any counterreaction that my opponent throws.”
Mutia was doing both wrestling and judo for the visually impaired when she gradually lost her sight. Moreover, she had not even thought of quitting the sport. “Grappling sports, judo, they’re all based on contact,” she explained. “I never felt that I might have to stop because of my condition.”
Kat Holmes: Med School Meets Medal Dreams
Kat Holmes’s story is a combination of medicine and Olympic success intertwined, however not always in a felicitous way. The Princeton alum, currently at her third year at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, took part in team and individual epee at her third Olympic Games in Paris.
>”Training for the Olympics is not a fun thing to do while being in medical school,” she told CNBC Make It Ahead. “It’s simply not an enjoyable experience. I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone. I don’t love training all the time. Some days I hate it, objectively.”
Though she had to face a lot of difficulties, Holmes still keeps her passion alive. “I love fencing at the end of the day, really, really,” she mentioned. “I just try to keep coming back to that again and again. I want to win an Olympic medal, but I don’t think that solely would have been enough to get me through it.”
Jesse Gruper: Solving Puzzles on the Wall and in the Lab
When sport climbing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo, Jesse Gruper wasn’t qualified—but he made it to Paris. With the start of the sport at 6 years and competing by 11, Gruper went on to win gold in the men’s combined at the 2023 Pan American Games, thus obtaining his ticket to the Olympics.
In non-competitive time, Gruper is an engineering research fellow at Harvard, working in rehabilitation and soft robotic educational technology. Even when he was on the World Cup circuit, he was combining training with part-time remote work at the Harvard Biodesign Lab.
“Just like mechanical engineering, climbing is a puzzle that requires a lot of the same general skills,” he told Olympics.com. “Both are a riddle. You start with a challenge and have to figure out a solution in any way you can. It requires creativity, hard work, and commitment.”
Dani Jackovich: Keeping Her Head in the Game
Australian water polo player, Dani Jackovich, could say that the pool is her second home. Besides the pool, she is also immersed in the water—working as an operations coordinator for swimwear brand Delfina Sport and a data analyst for water polo tech company 6-8 Sports. A former Stanford standout, her professional and athletic worlds have always been very intertwined.
Jackovich, making her Olympic debut in Paris, looked back on her journey that took so long to get there. “It is a fantastic emotion,” she told Go Stanford. “The route I took to make this dream a reality was not the most usual one. I remember being at a stage when I was convinced that the dream would never come true, but my passion for the sport was the reason I kept playing and traveling the world. The walk I’ve done makes it more special that I can say I am now living my childhood dream.”
Anne Cebula: From Runway to Olympic Strip
Once upon a time, Anne Cebula had been to Paris in a totally different way – as a model. However, with the Olympic Games, Paris is completely new to her. Cebula who is originally from New York State first got mesmerized with the sport when she was 10 years old during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with its drama and precision. “People are ripping off their masks yelling and screaming,” she told Access Daily. “You usually only see that at the end of other sports, but in fencing it’s all throughout. It’s like an opera.”
>Her parents could not afford the lesson, but five years later she discovered a way through the fencing club in Brooklyn Technical High School. After that, she competed for Columbia University and proceeded further till she reached Paris as the U.S.’s second-ranked women’s epee fencer.
>To go on with her training at the highest level, Cebula kept modeling, but she gave up her receptionist job, committing 5 hours a day, 5 days a week to the sport. “Fencing changed my life forever,” she said to The City. “I have been blessed with a lot of opportunities and I would love to share that with kids who may not even know this sport exists. There is a lot of untapped potential.”
Meghan Musnicki: Rowing Back to the Olympics
After the Tokyo Olympics, four-time Olympian Meghan Musnicki “Moose” resigned from rowing, got married, and at the age of 39, embarked on her first “real” day job in the Human Resources department of a data infrastructure company in the Bay Area. But the charm of the 2022 Henley Royal Regatta was simply beyond her. What started as a fun entry with her partner turned into an unexpected victory.
>“It was a demonstration that I was on the competitive level with other people that had been training full-time,” Musnicki stated when she realized that another Olympics was within reach. “If I really liked it [training], if I were able to handle the stress [physiologically], then why not?”
Musnicki started practicing with her husband’s, Skip Kielt, a rowing coach, mainly male squad while still keeping her full-time job. In early 2024, she relocated to the national team’s Princeton, N.J., base, carrying on with her remote work between her tough 7:15 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. workouts, all in order to be on Paris crew.
Her husband, Skip, will also be making his Olympic debut as coach of the U.S. men’s team. “This is not a sport you do for the money,” Meghan said. “You do it because you love it.”
