The day after Brook Lopez agreed he and Jeremy Lin are a natural fit, Lin praised Lopez’s versatility, saying "he’s definitely got to make my life a lot easier." Like Lopez, Lin was interviewed by Chris Carrino and Tim Capstraw on the Nets Facebook page.
Lin called Lopez very underrated.
"The guy can score every which way. He has soft hands. He is the biggest human being ever. He is so talented," said the Nets point guard of the Nets center.
"Hes going to make my life so much easier. He can pick and pop, pick and roll. He can post up, back to the basket, face up, floaters, dunks. everything. He's definitely going to make my life a lot easier."
Lin also said he expects some of the Nets younger guys to succeed beyond expectations, specifically naming one.
"We definitely have a lot of young guys who are going to surprise some guys," said Lin. "Sean Kilpatrick is going to surprise people. He is a hell of a ball player. And there are other guys as well who are going to be really good for us."
Kilpatrick was praised last week by Sean Marks who said the Nets swing man had dramatically improved his body this summer with the aid of the Nets performance team. Kilpatrick told NetsDaily and the Post that he had dropped his weight by eight points and reduced his body mass index from 13.5 to 8.5.
Lin talked to Carrino and Capstraw about the Nets player-oriented culture.
"They really really care, by far, by far, the most for their athletes," said Lin who's played for the Knicks and Lakers.
"You could just even start with just food, like nutrition and the quality of food," he said. "I mean, the other day, we had lobster. Like, who eats lobster? I have never seen, smelled, or heard of lobster anything in the facility. But there was lobster."
As for the fit with Lopez, Lin joked it goes beyond basketball.
"There's a California kinship, but more an IQ kinship. Because being from Harvard and Stanford, we tend to impose our intellectual dominance over everybody else"
On how he deals with his vast army of Chinese-Americans and Chinese fans, Lin said things have changed since Linsanity.
"I think at this I've embraced it. early in my career, I didn't know what to do. i was scared, jaded. Now, i think i embrace it, i love it. I want to be in the community. I want to be a voice for the Asian American community," said Lin, who added his social consciousness extends beyond ethnicity. "I want to be in the community, helping the underprivileged people in Brooklyn as well, doing things in philanthropy as well as the Asian American community."
Lin also spoke of how last season in Charlotte, coming off his disappointing (if not disastrous) season in L.A., turned around his faith in the game.
"Going to Charlotte was a breath of fresh air," Lin continued. "I learned so much from Cliff [Hornets coach Steve Clifford]. ... We played the right way, we moved the ball, we played as a team. It was just beautiful. It just brought back everything I thought basketball to be, and I had so much fun with it."
