ONE STEP AT A Time

NBA and G League vet Jeremy Lin and Loyola Marymount's Anthony Yu speak candidly about the ups and downs of being Asian American in the basketball world.

MAY IS ASIAN American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This year, it’s happening as anti-Asian hate crimes rise at an alarming rate. In response, the #StopAsianHate campaign has generated nationwide support, with NBA veteran Jeremy Lin as a leading voice.

For SLAM, Lin sat down with Anthony Yu, an incoming sophomore point guard at Loyola Marymount University, to talk about what it’s like as an Asian American college basketball player today, dealing with anti-Asian racism, being an ally for the Black Lives Matter movement, and how the culture of basketball brings people from all walks of life together.

JEREMY LIN: OK, so if we walk in the gym right now and I give you 100 spot shots, from your favorite spot on the court, three-pointers, how many you making?

ANTHONY YU: You know, I say a cool 70. What about you?

JEREMY: Me? If you’re asking me if I walk into the gym, 100. Will I make 100, who knows? But if you’re asking me how many I’m going to make, I’m saying 100.

That’s just something we’re working on for me. I mean, a big part of what I’ve been working on is my mindset and things like that. When I was in college, when I was your age, I would’ve been cool with 60, 65 maybe.

So year one for you [at Loyola Marymount University], what was that like?

ANTHONY: It was a big learning experience, playing with all these great players here at LMU, you know, I was able to learn a lot. Yeah, we had a pretty good year, we made it to the second round of the WCC conference tournament.