Hornets Sign Free Agent Guard Jeremy Lin
July 9, 2015 – Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has signed free agent guard Jeremy Lin. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are excited to add Jeremy Lin to our lineup,” Cho said. “He is a talented player who we feel can make significant contributions to our basketball team.”
A five-year NBA veteran, the 6-3 Lin has played in 291 NBA games for the Warriors, Knicks, Rockets and Lakers, with career averages of 11.7 points, 4.8 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 26.9 minutes. For his career, Lin has shot .437 from the field (1167-2668), .349 from beyond the three-point line (259-742) and .799 from the free-throw line (812-1016). He has also played in 10 playoff games, all with Houston, averaging 8.4 points, 3.4 assists and 3.0 rebounds in 16.1 minutes. Lin was not selected in the 2010 NBA Draft following four seasons at Harvard.
Lin spent the 2014-15 season with the Lakers, where he saw action in 70 games and averaged 11.2 points, 4.6 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 25.8 minutes. He shot a career-high .369 from beyond the three-point line (65-176), to go with .424 from the field (277-654) and .795 from the free-throw line (213-268).
The first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, Lin was named by Chinese magazine Vivid as one of its eight most influential Chinese-Americans in July 2011 and by Time Magazine as one of its “Top 100 Most Influential People in the World” in April 2012. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in two consecutive weeks in February 2012, becoming just the third NBA player to do so in the magazine’s history, and also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in the second week. He also received the ESPY Award for Breakthrough Athlete of the Year in July 2012.
In addition to his NBA experience, Lin also played in 20 games in the NBA D-League with the Reno Bighorns in 2010-11 and one game with the Erie BayHawks in 2011-12. In 21 total D-League games, he averaged 18.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.0 steals in 32.4 minutes, while shooting .480 from the field (135-281), .359 from beyond the three-point line (14-39) and .732 from the free-throw line (104-142).
