Almost all athletes have a person who inspires the and is probably the reason they play their sport now. For sophomore Nelson Marshall, the person who has inspired him is Jeremy Lin. “Jeremy Lin inspired me to play basketball.” Jeremy Lin is the first American of Chinese and Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, but that’s not what makes Nelson like him so much. For Nelson, Jeremy Lin was the reason he started basketball. “Jeremy Lin is the reason I started playing basketball and the reason I’m still playing to this day,” stated Nelson.

Nelson didn’t really have much interest in basketball, but Jeremy Lin inspired him to start at such a young age. ”Jeremy Lin inspires me because I was a four-year-old, looking at the TV screen and watching them score a lot of points on the New York Knicks, so as [a] four-year-old, it really made me want to start playing basketball, and then I asked my dad to play basketball.” Four-year-old Nelson knew what he wanted, and Jeremy Lin helped him realize his passion for basketball. There are also other reasons that Jeremy Lin has inspired Nelson. “He inspires me because everybody thought that he sucked ever since he joined the Knicks and he was able to play like a superstar.” So it inspired him to just keep playing no matter what others say to you.