Christian professional basketball player Jeremy Lin spent his time off during the NBA All-Star Weekend giving back to the homeless community in upstate New York with food to help celebrate the Chinese New Year.
The 26-year-old point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers shows off a new video featuring "A Day in the Life" of the star during his time on break. In it, he's seen cooking pan-fried dumplings and radish cakes with his brother that he later takes to a local park to share. The homeless people shown in the video chat with Lin about their own struggles on the streets.
"People believe that those who are homeless don't want to do better for themselves," one man says in the video. "They don't want to work, or they don't want to go to school, or be closer to their families, when in reality that's not true at all."
"I know before I ended up on the streets, I kinda thought, well these people must all be out here because they screwed up," a homeless woman adds. "I'm out here because I'm on disability permanently."
"We aren't as bad as they might label us to be," another man says. "A lot of us are out here trying to put things back into perspective and get our lives together."
As Lin spends more time with the homeless group, he explains the traditions of the Chinese New Year, handing out gifts in red envelops to each person he meets at the park.
But it's the fun that Lin has with the people he meets that is most inspiring. He encourages one man to play some of his guitar and sing a bit before joking with him about the performance. "I don't know why you think you're a bad singer," Lin teases.
Later, the man challenges the athlete to a foot race, saying that "I'm a quick guy for 55, now." Lin takes the challenge and wins, but the connection really brought a smile to the man's face.
"I just think it's a valuable thing to do, just to sit down and learn some of the stories, find ways in which you can kinda understand who they are," Lin said. "Relate to them, sympathize, empathize with what they've been through, versus always feeling like, alright, I'm going to judge you based on what I see."
Lin spends the last part of the video explaining where he's at, professionally, during this All-Star break and where he hopes to go from here. He says he's looking forward to getting back to the game for the second half of the season and ends with an inspirational Bible verse from Mark, chapter 12, verses 30 and 31: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart... Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
