The Good News: Jeremy Lin and the Toronto Raptors are headed to the NBA Championship Finals for the first time. The Bad News: Jeremy Lin still gets stopped by security personnel who don't recognize him as a player.
Lin has been candid about this. It happens to him fairly regularly. The latest incident occurred earlier this month in Milwaukee after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. A security guard stopped Jeremy from boarding the Raptors' team bus at Fiserv Forum, demanding to see his credentials.
"After game two in Milwaukee, I was trying to get to the team bus and one of the dudes in the Milwaukee Arena just screams at me," Lin recently shared on the Bill Michaels Sports Talk Network. "He's like, 'Where do you think you’re going?!' And I'm like, 'Uh, I’m trying to get to the team bus.' He’s like, 'What? Where's your pass?'"
"'I don't know what you’re taking about,'" Lin recalls saying. "'I don't have a pass.'"
He talks about it at around the 10:20 mark:
Yo, is it still really so hard to believe this one Asian dude plays in the NBA? I'm guessing the other players managed to get on the bus without incident.
Still, despite the hassle, Lin took the incident in stride. By now, having played for eight teams over the last decade, he's used to it. "This happens in a lot of arenas, so I just kind of go with the flow," Lin says.
Meanwhile, he's celebrating the Raptors' victorious playoff run.
Lin signed with the Raptors in February from the Atlanta Hawks, but has played only 26 minutes in seven games during the Playoffs. Hopefully, he'll get more play time during the Finals against the Golden State Warriors. And maybe arena security will recognize Jeremy back in his hometown. Maybe.
