Ever since Colin Kaepernick opted to protest during the anthem to bring attention to civil rights injustices and police brutality in America, the conversation of race within the country has dominated sports.

Jeremy Lin, who is an Asian-American, spoke of those civil rights issues during the Brooklyn Nets’ media day. Lin believes that, because he is an Asian within the NBA, everything he does receives a bit more attention or scrutiny.

“You can just take the racial element alone,” Lin said. “You can add on so many other factors, but really anything I do is hyper-magnified in a good way or a bad way. People are quick to discount me or say certain things because of my race. And when I do well, people are quick to say he’s so amazing, he’s the truth, whatever, because of my race, because of the way I look.

Lin became a viral celebrity during a multi-game stretch in 2012 as a member of the New York Knicks. Lin took complete command of the Knicks, averaging 26.8 points per game during a Knicks winning streak. According to The Week, Lin, who was virtually unknown across the NBA before his hot streak, had his Twitter followers increase by over 300,000 and the tickets and Madison Square Garden doubled in value. The stretch was even made into a movie. And, according to Lin, that probably would have happened if he wasn’t Asian.

“In some ways, Linsanity wouldn’t have been Linsanity if I was a different skin color, most likely, it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal,” Lin said. “And that went to my advantage, too, but if you look prior to that, a lot of the obstacles to even get to that point where I could get to a position of getting on the floor, those were definitely obstacles that were very much stereotypes that I had to fight along the way. So I’ve always understood that there’s good and there’s bad and you have to take them together and just be thankful for it all.”

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