Lin leads Rockets to Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Houston Rockets guard Jeremy Lin arrived in Taiwan on Friday to play in his parents’ homeland.

The Rockets will face the Indiana Pacers in an NBA preseason game Sunday in Taipei – a special occasion for the league’s first American-born player of Taiwanese descent.

“I kind of see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Lin told a packed news conference. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back and play a NBA preseason game here where my parents were born and raised.

“Definitely, I am looking forward to it. It’s a celebration in some sense.”

The Rockets and Pacers traveled to Taipei from Manila, where Houston beat Indiana 116-96 on Thursday in the first NBA preseason game in the Philippines.

Taiwan is still in the throes of “Linsanity,” with Lin T-shirts and related paraphernalia popular attire on this self-governing island of 23 million people, 100-miles off the China coast.