Jeremy Lin is American.

Jeremy Lin is Taiwanese not Chinese.

China doesn't need the NBA nearly as much as the NBA wants China's money. Just as I would mildly like to be as good of bicyclist as my neighbor who has devoted time to that rather than a career, I see no reason why China couldn't easily frame the NBA in some sort of a similar manner while pouring a bit of cash into developing a "good enough" domestic league that has the added bonus of being Chinese. Even if the Chinese populace currently held high admiration for NBA players, I suspect this opinion if fairly malleable - particularly when you can point out a very clear and plausible path to de facto world economic and military supremacy as a consolation prize.

Jeremy Lin grew up in Palo Alto, California.

China exported Jeremy Lin? He's a born and raised american...

Jeremy Lin is not Chinese.

>Lin is the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Lin

Jeremy Lin is of Chinese descent. I didn't say he was born there.

He is not 'exported' from China, that is the point. People in China recognizes him as a foreigner.

Your statement is still absurd. Would you consider an Irish American player to be “exported from” Ireland?

Probably? Why would that be different?

Because we already have a preexisting standard we conform to. Saying Jeremy Lin is a Chinese export is like saying the NBA mostly consists of African exports - we generally consider the black players with some African heritage as just Americans. Jeremy Lin is an American with Chinese heritage - This also helps to differentiate from players who actually have emigrated from other countries like Hakeem Olajuwon.

The term "African American" is complicated. But I think when someone self-identifies as a [country]-American, it's generally fair to call them an export of that country. You would want to be clear in certain circumstances that they weren't born there, but it's not a terrible way to phrase things.

Note that this is different from just having heritage in a country. There's immigration only a couple generations back in my family, but it's already mixed to the point that I wouldn't call myself any specific country-American.

Because most people don't view/phrase it like that and it sounds absurd either way. At best your phrasing is absurd and at worst (which you deny is the case), racist.

Jeremy Lin is Taiwanese bruh