Jeremy Lin, ‘Reppin’ Asians With Everything I Have,’ Is Bigger Than an N.B.A. Title
林书豪的故事，不仅仅只关乎NBA冠军

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.

多伦多——我两个侄子今年分别是四岁和七岁，他们经常在家里的后院练习跳投，并十分留心地观看NBA比赛，知道多伦多猛龙队(Toronto Raptors)最好的球员科怀·伦纳德(Kawhi Leonard)穿2号球衣。今年秋天，大侄子将加入这里的华裔加拿大青年体育协会，去打篮球。有那么一天，他俩将对2018-19赛季的猛龙队有更多的了解，他们将发现林书豪的故事，他们将问我有关他的问题。

I look forward to that day.

我期待着那一天的到来。

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.

是的，林书豪在整个季后赛只上场了27分钟。是的，这其中他在总决赛里只打了一分钟。但6月13日，林书豪和队友们在甲骨文体育馆(Oracle Arena)的客队更衣室里高兴地蹦跳、用香槟酒把队友们浇个透儿的几小时后，他在Instagram上发了一张与父母和弟弟的合影。

The Larry O’Brien trophy was there, too.

拉里·奥布莱恩奖杯也在照片上。

“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.

“第一个成为NBA冠军的亚裔美国人！！保证我永远不会停止用我所有的一切来代表亚洲人！”林书豪写道。这是一个重要的时刻，但因为林书豪上场的时间很少，很多人没有注意到这个时刻的重要性。他们不明白这件事的要害。

Lin’s story has always been about more than his playing time or his performance on the court. It has been about Asian representation and visibility, rarely recognized or seen in organized basketball, especially at the N.B.A. level.

林书豪的故事一直都不只是关于他上场的时间，以及他在场上的表现。他的故事是关于亚洲的代表性和可见度，在有组织的篮球运动中，尤其是在NBA的水平上，亚裔很少被看重或被看见。

Posing with the Larry O’Brien trophy, and the glow of validation it signified, mattered. Every championship team has reserve players who are part of the group but don’t make an impact on the court. But not every reserve player carries with him the responsibility and burden of being the most prominent Asian-American basketball player in the world. If Lin’s story were only about basketball, it would have been over long ago.

捧着拉里·奥布莱恩奖杯、沉浸在它所代表的认可之光下拍照很重要。每个冠军球队都有替补队员，虽然他们是球队的一部分，但并不对场上产生影响。不过，并不是每个替补都肩负着作为世界上最杰出的亚裔美国篮球运动员的责任和重担。如果林书豪的故事仅仅是关于篮球的话，它早就结束了。

“I used to run from it, because that’s all anybody ever wanted to label me,” Lin, who is of Taiwanese descent, told reporters after his Raptors debut in February. “It was like, ‘Oh, he’s Asian, he’s Asian, he’s Asian.’”

“我过去总是躲避这个，因为那是所有人都用在我身上的标签，”祖籍台湾的林书豪今年2月以猛龙队员身份亮相后对记者说。“就像是，‘哦，他是亚洲人，他是亚洲人，他是亚洲人。’”

Even though Lin is one of the best basketball players in the world, he has not been shielded from the stereotypes that other Asian-Americans face in everyday life, like dealing with racial slurs and being forced to prove that they belong. Lin has said he often is not recognized by security guards at N.B.A. arenas.

尽管林书豪是世界上最优秀的篮球运动员之一，但他一直也没能避免其他亚裔美国人在日常生活中所面对的那些刻板印象，比如应付种族污辱，以及需要证明自己是这个社会的一员。林书豪说过，经常有NBA赛场的保安认不出他来。

They couldn’t miss him in May.

他们不会在今年5月错认他。

He arrived at the arena for every Raptors playoff game in apparel that celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. He wore clothes from Asian-American designers like Phillip Lim. One day, he put on a black T-shirt that said simply, “Phenomenally Asian.” Another outfit featured a T-shirt with the phrase “It’s an Honor Just to Be Asian,” which was popularized by the actress Sandra Oh.

他参加猛龙队季后赛的每场比赛时，都穿着庆祝亚太裔传统月(Asian Pacific American Heritage Month)的服装来到赛场。他穿的衣服包括亚裔美国设计师林能平(Phillip Lim)的设计。有一天，他穿了一件黑色长袖T恤，上面只印着两个英文单词：Phenomenally Asian（非凡的亚洲人）。另一次穿的衣服包括一件T恤衫，上面写着：It’s an Honor Just to Be Asian（身为亚洲人本身就是一种荣幸），这句话是从女演员吴珊卓(Sandra Oh)那里红起来的。

Seeing Lin in that particular shirt meant something to me. To see him show pride in who he is on a national stage helps me (and many others) know that it’s O.K. to think of yourself as equal. To be proud of who you are. That feeling doesn’t always come easily when you’re part of a minority group. You often have a sense that glass ceilings exist, whether those created by others or the ones we set for ourselves because of our experiences of being treated differently from others.

看到林书豪穿着那件特别的衬衫，对我来说有特殊的意义。看到他把自豪感表现在全国舞台上，让我（和许多其他人）知道，可以把自己视为与他人是平等的，可以为自己的身份感到骄傲。当你是一名少数族裔成员时，不总是那么容易获得这种感觉。你经常会觉得，玻璃天花板是存在的，不管那是他人为我们设置的，还是由于我们被当作与其他人不同的人来对待的经历导致我们为自己设置的。

Throughout my career, I’ve always felt that accomplishing the same things as my peers resulted in my getting only half the credit and recognition, partially because of who I am. When Lin arrived in Toronto, I was flooded with interview requests from radio hosts and fellow writers. It was an honor to speak about Lin’s career path, but later I became disappointed that those same publications and radio shows saw me only as someone who could bring value when it came to discussing this topic that was unfamiliar to them, when in fact I am more than capable of having a conversation solely about basketball.

在我的整个职业生涯中，我一直觉得，当我取得与同龄人或同行同样的成就时，我只得到了一半的赞扬和认可，部分原因是我的身份。林书豪刚到多伦多时，我收到了来自电台主持人和作家同行的大量采访请求。谈论林书豪的职业生涯对我来说是一种荣誉，但后来，我开始对这些出版物和广播节目感到失望，它们认为我只是在涉及这个对它们来说不熟悉的话题时才对它们有价值，而事实上，我参加一个以篮球为唯一话题的对话能力富富有余。

It felt a lot like experiences Lin has described, of people wanting to talk to him only about being of Asian descent. As Lin, 30, has grown comfortable with his outsize influence and responsibility, we have watched him speak out about racial stereotypes and call out the comedian Chris Rock for making Asian jokes as the host of the Oscars in 2016.

这种感觉与林书豪描述过的经历很相似，想和他谈话的人只关心他的亚裔血统。随着现年30岁的林书豪对自己的巨大影响力和责任感越来越自信，我们看到他对种族偏见公开发声，并点了在2016年奥斯卡颁奖典礼上拿亚洲人开玩笑的喜剧演员克里斯·洛克(Chris Rock)的名。

There are Asians around the world who have been moved to pursue their own basketball careers, and to start basketball leagues, because of Lin, even with his Linsanity days likely forever behind him. Lin is more than basketball.

尽管他的“林来疯”时代可能已经一去不复返，但因为林书豪的缘故，世界上有不少亚洲人在他的感召下开始追求自己的篮球事业，开始打篮球联赛。林书豪不仅仅是关于篮球的。

After the Raptors won Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals in Oakland, Calif., for the franchise’s first championship, the team flew to Las Vegas to keep the celebration going. As his teammates partied into the wee hours, Lin joined his friend Ryan Higa on a podcast and reflected on his journey this season.

猛龙队在加利福尼亚州奥克兰的NBA总决赛第六场比赛中获胜，赢得了该球队的首个总冠军称号后，队员们飞往拉斯维加斯继续庆祝。就在队友们狂欢到凌晨的时候，林书豪来到他的朋友瑞安·比嘉(Ryan Higa)的播客节目，回顾了自己本赛季的历程。

“There were times in all honesty where I felt I had to tell myself I deserve a championship,” Lin told Higa. “As a competitor who plays and has played my whole life, I’m not used to not playing, so I was like: ‘This is tough. Do I really deserve it?’”

“有很多时候其实我觉得，我不得不告诉自己，我配得上拿个冠军，”林书豪对比嘉说。“作为一个打球的运动员、打了一辈子球的人，我不喜欢不打球，所以我会想，‘这真让人难受。我真的配得上这个冠军吗？’”

Lin said he was able to reconcile those feelings because he knew that no matter how many minutes he played, he was part of the day-to-day process of a team that came together and won a title, outlasting all 29 other teams in the league.

林书豪说，他之所以能够释怀这些情绪，是因为他知道，不管他上场多少分钟，他都是球队日常进程的一部分，这支球队是一起奋斗才赢得冠军的，比联赛中其他29支球队持续的时间都长。

The celebration shifted to Toronto on Monday morning, as double-decker, open-air buses filled with players, coaches and family members, then departed the Raptors’ practice facility to start the championship parade. Seated with his family and close friends, Lin wore a throwback Raptors jersey that spelled the team’s name in Chinese characters.

庆祝活动在周一上午转移到了多伦多，随着双层露天巴士载着球员、教练、家人从猛龙队的训练场地出发，总冠军大游行开始了。林书豪与家人和亲朋好友坐在一起，穿着一件复古设计的猛龙队队服，上面用汉字写着球队的名字。

On the parade route, he spotted a fan with a Jeremy Lin jersey. From high up on the bus, Lin asked the fan to toss the jersey and a marker. Lin promptly signed the jersey and threw a perfect pass back to the fan, now the owner of his own championship memorabilia.

在游行途中，他看到一位身穿林书豪球衣的粉丝。在大巴上，林书豪让球迷把球衣和一只记号笔扔过来。他立即在球衣上签了名，然后用一个完美的传球把球衣投还给了这位球迷，现在那人拥有了属于他自己的总冠军纪念品。

These images, too, will live forever, of an Asian-American who went undrafted in 2010, turned into a worldwide sensation in 2012 and became an N.B.A. champion in 2019. The trophy will never note how many minutes he played. One day, another Asian-American player will be on this stage again. And it will be because Lin helped pave the way.