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TORONTO — My 4-year-old and 7-year-old nephews regularly practice jump shots in their backyard, and they watch the N.B.A. attentively enough to know that the Toronto Raptors’ best player, Kawhi Leonard, wears the No. 2. In the fall, the older nephew will join the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association here to play basketball. One day both will learn more about the 2018-19 Raptors championship team, and they will find out about Jeremy Lin, and they will ask me questions about him.

I look forward to that day.

Yes, Lin played just 27 minutes in the playoffs. Yes, only one of those minutes was in the finals. But hours after he and his teammates had finished dancing and drenching Oracle Arena’s visitors’ locker room with Champagne last Thursday, Lin posted a photo on Instagram that showed him posing with his parents and his brother.

The Larry O’Brien trophy was there, too.

“First Asian-American ever to be an NBA champ!! Promise Ill never stop reppin Asians with everything I have!” Lin wrote. It was a momentous occasion, but many people don’t see the importance of it, given how little Lin played. They’re missing the point.