The G League is investigating a claim made by Jeremy Lin, who said he was called ‘Coronavirus’ during a game, a League official told ESPN’s Marc Spears on Friday.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Lin, the former NBA escort who now plays for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League, spoke about the racism the Asian-American community continues to face and offered examples that he said he had.
“Being a 9-year veteran in the NBA doesn’t protect me from being called a‘ coronavirus ’on the court,” he wrote.
Lin did not specify when he was called that. He currently participates in the G-League bubble in Orlando, Florida, as a member of Santa Cruz, the Warriors subsidiary.
On Friday night, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he would like the NBA to investigate Lin’s claim.
“I just saw the Facebook post,” Kerr said. “It’s really powerful. I applaud Jeremy for his words and echo his feelings about racism against the Asian-American community. It’s so ridiculous and obviously engendered by many people, including our former president (Donald Trump), as far as the coronavirus that originated in China is concerned. It’s shocking. I don’t know, I can’t understand any of that, but I can’t understand racism in general. “
Lin became the first NBA player born in the United States of Chinese or Taiwanese descent when he broke with the Golden State Warriors during the 2010-11 season. He became best known for a streak of scores, one that led him to wins with the New York Knicks during the 2011-12 season, which he described as ‘Linsanity’. In total, the former Harvard star averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists in 480 games in the 2010 NBA in 2019.
Prior to his time in the G League this season, he had been playing for the Chinese Basketball Association.
When asked specifically if he would like to see an investigation into Lin’s claim, Kerr responded quickly on Friday.
“Oh yeah, sure,” he said. “Like I said, I saw the post, the reference was a bit vague, so I think it would be nice to know what happened.”