Jeremy Lin passes up on money for more than 2 contracts during Linsanity

kinein

Benchwarmer
Jeremy Lin Says He Spurned Millions of Dollars in Linsanity Era
By Erik Matuszewski - Sep 26, 2014

Jeremy Lin said he left tens of millions of dollars on the table by not accepting the endorsement opportunities he was offered during the height of the ?Linsanity? era in New York two years ago.

The 26-year-old Lin, who is now with the Los Angeles Lakers after spending the past two seasons with the Houston Rockets, is the first Chinese- or Taiwanese-American to play in the National Basketball Association.

A Harvard University graduate, Lin only played in 35 games with the Knicks -- including 25 starts -- during the 2011-12 season, yet sparked a winning turnaround as he went from bench-warmer to star. He spawned an international craze known as Linsanity, boosting television ratings and merchandise sales in New York while his jersey became the league?s best-seller.

?If I had accepted everything, I don?t know the exact number, but I would have been making way more off the court than on the court,? said Lin, who has a $14.9 million salary in the final season of his three-year, $25 million deal. ?Even the next contract after.?

Lin yesterday joined the Whistle Sports Network as a content partner, adding his YouTube channel with almost 400,000 subscribers to the 8-month-old, sports-focused digital media platform. He?s the first athlete from one of the four major professional sports leagues in the U.S. to produce content for the company and received an undisclosed equity stake.

Lin in January signed an endorsement contract with Adidas AG after his previous agreement with Nike Inc. ended, yet has largely avoided most of the sponsorship he?s been offered.

?We?ve turned away almost everything, just because I do think my purpose is to play basketball, play well, and play for the glory of God,? Lin said in a telephone interview. ?The stuff off the court is great and it?s fun, but it?s definitely secondary to my primary job.?


Lin said he?s one of the few NBA players with a YouTube channel and created it mainly to connect with fans.

?What we?re trying to do with that has never been about monetization,? Lin said, adding that the Whistle Sports Network will help improve the production and reach of his videos. ?That?s true for this partnership as well. A lot of what we create is purely for the fans.?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...ned-millions-of-dollars-in-linsanity-era.html
 

tiger0330

Legend
If it was me I would have posted this in the Knicks forum otherwise it won't be seen. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

He's an Asian ad magnet being the only Asian in the NBA, just read a Taiwanese company jumped ship from being a sponsor with the Rockets to sign up with the Lakers obviously because he left there.

Good decision by Lin to concentrate on his game. Not sure if he was out of the NBA whether he would still have his shoe deal and that Volvo deal he has. He could of course go play in China if he ever gets cut in the NBA, I'm sure he would excel in the CBA and have a ton of off the court sponsorships.
 
Poor Jeremy Lin. He is built to be the star player on a bad team. The worst thing that could ever have happened to him was to repeatedly wind up in places where they expect to win. He needs a team that will just let him takeover Disney movie style.
 

tiger0330

Legend
First game as a Laker and he didn't make a shot. Not a total loss he had 10 assists and some of them were sweet, others you have to give credit to the shooter for getting him the dime.

It's his contract year and he's got to start shooting better if he wants to stick.
 
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