Lin doc ‘38 at Garden’ moves Linsanity beyond basketball
Jeremy Lin did not want to make a nostalgia piece.
The former NBA player, whose sudden ascent to superstardom was dubbed Linsanity, is humble about the 2011-12 season. An Asian American kid born in Torrance, California, who played college ball at Harvard, Lin is quiet, hard-working and not the kind of player, or person, who draws attention to himself.
A movie? About himself and that time? It wasn’t something that Lin looked forward to revisiting. He had moved on from that period with the New York Knicks, later joining the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers, winning a championship with the Toronto Raptors and playing in China. Linsanity was behind him. But the persistent filmmakers behind the Oscar-shortlisted documentary “38 at the Garden” — including director Frank Chi and producers Travon Free and Samir Hernandez — were eventually able to persuade Lin to participate in what they hoped to accomplish and what he, unknowingly, meant to the Asian American community.
Now streaming on HBO Max, “38 at the Garden,” chronicles that season, culminating 11 years ago at a Feb. 10, 2012, game against the Los Angeles Lakers when Lin scored a remarkable 38 points.
This interview with Lin has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Why didn’t you initially want to participate? A:
I was trying to turn it down … the CEO of our company that handles all my off-the-court stuff, she was adamant about me at least listening to their pitch. After listening to
their pitch, the one thing we all agreed on was that this is going to be much bigger than just, you know, the stats, the game, the sport of basketball. This is going to be about humanity. This is going to be about what’s going on right now post-pandemic with the Asian violence that we’ve been seeing, about minorities and people who are fearing for their lives in this critical moment in history.
Q: What was your reaction to seeing the film for the first time? A:
The first time I watched, it was the first screening at (the Tribeca Festival). And I was blown away. First off, I did not realize how funny it was going to be with the comedians, with the journalists and with my teammates because I went through Linsanity, but I went through Linsanity from my perspective. … To see it from everyone else’s lens was really impactful. … But No. 2, by the end of the movie, there’s a high percentage of people who watch this film and end up in tears. A lot of people are really emotional and a lot of people are thinking about themselves or thinking about society, but they’re definitely not thinking about basketball. They’re definitely not thinking about 38 points
at MSG. They’re thinking about something much bigger than that. And that’s what I was blown away with, how they were able to tie it all together.
Q: How do you feel Linsanity and the film can help others moving forward? A:
Now 10 years removed and having seen “38 at the Garden,” my relationship with Linsanity is definitely trending up. It is not something that I try to run away from, but it is something as a badge of honor that I’m very proud of. And I think that the one thing that I really want to do now is kind of what “38” is doing. ... I want to tell this story in ways that encourage the next generation of people. There’s a few amazing things when people watch it, especially at the screenings, and they give a lot of feedback, and they come and talk to us. There’s one person who was like, “Oh, I watched the movie, and then the next day I asked for a promotion and then three months later I got it.” And there’s other people who talk about different things that they need to do, obstacles that they need to overcome, or ways that they need to not hold themselves small. … This story can continue to kind of be a vehicle for the change that we’re hoping to see.