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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

May 29, 2019

Jeremy Lin

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

Q. Talking about cherishing the moments here have you had that time it seems like you reflect a lot but the ups and downs of your career, the winding path, what's it like to be in this moment?
JEREMY LIN: It's great. Again, I just try to take it one day at a time because tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and I know that everyone's said that and everyone knows that theoretically, but when you get cut twice, when you get traded multiple times, you have season-ending injuries and all different, and everything in between, like tomorrow isn't guaranteed, it really isn't. So I've seen that, experienced that, and so I really just try to take it one day at a time. And every day that I step on the floor, I really try to be grateful for it, even if it's just working out, and like today I got a workout in before practice and just being able to do that and be healthy again, and then come out here. They said there would be like some media, but this is not some media. This is insane.

So again just trying to experience it, take it in, because no one can promise that they will be back to The Finals, no one can promise that they will be healthy enough to be in the NBA the next season. So I'm just enjoying it and I'm super grateful, especially having missed the last two years of basketball to injury, just to be here it's like this is, yeah, I did not expect this when I first heard that I had been traded to the Hawks, and that was a great experience as well and a great organization but obviously I wasn't thinking, oh, and in May, late May you'll be sitting here at a podium at the NBA Finals.

Q. What is your scouting report for Stephen Curry? I know it's a crazy question for how good he is but like how do you even tackle Stephen Curry? What are his tendencies?
JEREMY LIN: The biggest thing with any great player, any superstar is not that you're going to stop them, it's that you're going to make it as hard as you can. Maybe if you make them a little bit less efficient -- even if they score the same amount or whatever, and their percentage is the same, even if they had to work hard and expend more energy, because that will be, that will pay dividends on the defensive end or late in the game or whatever the case may be. So to go in against Steph you're not expecting to stop a player like that, you're just trying to make it as difficult as you can, trying to be physical, take away his favorite -- his I guess they're all easy looks for him but his easiest looks, and you're just trying to work against anything that is his number one option, his number two option or what makes him the most comfortable, you just want to try to take that away. That's really just consistent across the board for all great players.

I'm not going to talk about what we've talked about as a team or what we feel like we're going to try to take away, other than the obvious, which is you guys all know, you know, the three ball and easy looks and certain things. But beyond that we're going to, there's other elements of it and how you try to do that.

Q. You said Joe Lacob believed in you when others may have not, why was that?
JEREMY LIN: I mean I'm not -- I'm not the other people, so I can't really explain or whatever, but I don't want this to be about that because that was, that experience was exactly what it was supposed to be and I really believe everything happens for a reason and God has a perfect plan. So I had to grind and scrap and claw, and that's exactly what it had to be and I'm grateful for that, and I'm also glad that I went undrafted, too, and had to go to Summer League. I just felt like it put a different chip on my shoulder, and I think that was just part of, that's part of the story, that's part of the experience.

Q. What did you learn from Steph when you were with him?
JEREMY LIN: This is probably my most memorable story of Steph: I don't know what our record was, but we weren't great that year that I was there and, after 81 games he had gone through ankle injury after ankle injury after ankle injury, and we were literally going into game 82, the last game and he rolled his ankle the game before, and everyone was like, "Don't play, we're not playing for anything. You're risking it. You already injured your ankle a bunch of times." And so for me I was, you know, excited in terms of getting an opportunity to play, because they were you know they had called me up from back then the D-League and so I was getting excited to play.

And then they were like -- I was expecting to start and they were like, "Actually, Steph might play tonight." And I was like, "What? He just rolled his ankle." I didn't know if he was healthy enough. So he had to play through a lot of pain, but the fact that he actually did that, like swollen ankle, game 82, and just got out there on the floor and like against everyone's suggestion and I was like, man, this dude loves the game and he cares about it and he doesn't take it for granted. Like even in that situation like I don't know honestly I've been around now a lot, like I don't know how many NBA players, if anybody, would really be like, yeah, I'll just go play in the 82nd game that means nothing, risking my health. And I'm not saying that was the smartest thing, but it showed his passion for the game. And when you have someone that loves the game that much and is that talented, they're going to be great.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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