The baller has come a long way since …

The baller has come a long way since those days, in which he says he was hesitant to be labeled an “Asian athlete.” In some ways, Lin recalls, it was amid the madness that unfolded all around him, his own understandings of race and who he was as an Asian American began to percolate. And now, while the community observes the 10-year anniversary of the Linsanity phenomenon this month, the 33-year-old says he’s left with one “big regret.” “I was just so focused on playing well in the next game, I wasn’t so tuned into what everybody else was saying,” Lin told NBC Asian America. “There was a lack of understanding of what that moment meant and I feel like, because of that … I wasn’t able to say more and do more with my platform off the court that I wish I could have done and should have done.”