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"You got two years" - Jeremy Lin on his mom emptying her entire 401(k) to keep his NBA dream alive
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- "You got two years" - Jeremy Lin on his mom emptying her entire 401(k) to keep his NBA dream alive
Jeremy Lin was one of the greatest success stories in modern NBA. But before his crazy Linsanity run, he literally had to go through the eye of the needle just to make it to the league.
Lin played college basketball for Harvard, where he was an All-Ivy League first team selection in his last two years. After graduating in 2010, he chose to pursue his NBA dream rather than use his Economics degree to find work. And because he was already out of school and without work, he had to depend on his parents to prepare for the 2010 NBA Draft.
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"When I was preparing for the NBA Draft, my mom emptied out her entire 401K so that I could eat until I was full, so I could prepare for the NBA Draft," Lin revealed during his recent appearance on Pablo Torre's podcast.
"At that time, we were very far in debt, we had already borrowed from the bank, we had borrowed from the house, we had borrowed from Harvard, no one would let us borrow anymore, and we had to borrow from family and so my mom, they're in debt and in a very tough position and my mom had a little left in her 401K and gives it all to me and says 'You got two years and if you can't make this work in two years, you gotta go use that Harvard degree," he added.
Jeremy ate the same Subway meal every day
Lin was born to Gie-Ming Lin and Shirley Lin, immigrants from Taiwan who worked as software engineers in Silicon Valley during that time. Although his parents had jobs, Lin explained that playing basketball in the United States is expensive, much more so than preparing for the NBA Draft, where he had to attend camps and take invites. And because the family's credit was already exhausted, Shirley let Jeremy use the 401 (k).
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The 401(k) is an employee fund named after a section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. It is a savings account into which a portion of an employee's monthly salary is deposited, and the employer matches that amount.
The account is supposed to be part of the employee's retirement benefits, but can be used in emergencies. Jeremy, preparing for the draft, was such for Shirley. But even after having his mom's money, J-Lin had to spend it wisely because it was a long process.
"I was trying to save money, so I was just eating Subway every day because they had a $5 footlong. And I was like eating until I was 75 percent full cuz I thought if I keep eating and eating, that's another $5.25. And I'm eating this every day because I don't have a choice," he added.
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Timing is crazy
Their worst fears came to life when Jeremy was not selected in the Draft. But he did not give up. He worked his way to the Dallas Mavericks ' mini-camp and their Summer League team, then went on to 9.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game.
He was noticed by his hometown Golden State Warriors , who ended up signing him to a partially guaranteed two-year, $1.2 million minimum deal. Jeremy said that the contract came at the right time.
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"God's timing is crazy because I finally signed with the Warriors on a partially-guaranteed rookie minimum, and I kid you not, within four weeks, both my parents were laid off. They're engineers in Silicon Valley," he continued.
"That's when tech and apps were booming, and so they started going with a lot of younger engineers, and the whole industry shifted. And my parents, who were computer engineers their whole lives, got laid off within two weeks of each other. And they could never find another job after that. I'm just like 'God, how would we have made it through that stretch if I didn't make it?" Lin concluded.
The story did not end there. Lin got waived by the Warriors after one season. That saw him end up in New York, where Linsanity happened. The rest, as they say, is history. He made $65 million over 10 NBA seasons, and he made much more through endorsement deals and later in his career when he played in Taiwan.
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Related: Jeremy Lin breaks down why the Knicks' Linsanity-era superteam never clicked and fell apart
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
