The Nets only rookie and China’s only player in the NBA spoke with Chris Carrino about his hero, Kobe Bryant, and “teacher,” Jeremy Lin with whom he shared whiskey and dreams of the NBA.
Back in December 2022, a 19-year-old Jacky Cui, a young player on the Guangzhou Loong Lions, wanted some wisdom about basketball and the NBA. So, who better to ask than his American teammate who had played for both New York teams and won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors, Jeremy Lin.
So, as he told Chris Carrino as part of the Brooklyn Nets Voice of the Nets series, he went to Lin’s room on more than occasion to talk NBA and drink whiskey.
“He was one of my teachers. I played with him like one season in the CBA. He was our team import,” said Cui of Lin, noting his status as an international player. “That was a good experience. I went to his room a lot of times, like very often and get some whisky and heard about his stories, his crazy haircut.”
Lin also told Cui about his injury in Brooklyn when he missed his second year with the Nets after blowing out his patella tendon in the season opener, he still wanted to play,
Cui told Carrino that Lin was willing to share experiences with him because he was open and encouraged him to “try the NBA, don’t be afraid. It’s not that far away.” By that point, Cui was already on the path to the U.S. having spent time at the NBA’s Global NBA Academy in Australia, an international training ground for young international players. And when Cui decided he wanted to take his shot at the NBA, he wound up with Lin’s agent, Roger Montgomery.
The 21-year-old said he can recall as a child how LinSanity affected him. pointing out that if you’re Chinese and play in the NBA, “the people will know you.”
Indeed, that’s now happening with Cui who’s the first Chinese player in the NBA in the past six years and currently the only one. His every move is chronicled by the big Chinese social media sites. A video of Cui singing “Happy Birthday” to Cam Thomas at the Practice in the Park wound up with 23,000 page views on the Nets Weibo site and a newer one, out Monday, had him dress up as a manager at the Shoo Loong Kan Hot Spot in Flushing. That drew another 9,000.
Cui spoke as well about how American players are also popular in China, specifically noting how he wears No. 8 as a tribute to Kobe Bryant just as Cam Thomas wears Kobe’s later number, 24.
“No. 8 maybe a shoutout to the young Kobe,” he told Carrino. “Everyone loved Kobe because he’s mentally tough. The Mamba Mentality impressed a lot of young players in China, try to get us out, try to work out.”
He also said he was influenced by his father, a street ball legend in China who once hit 17 3-pointers in a pro game and although he’s now 50 can still dunk.
“He was more famous than me,” Cui admitted.
Cui said he felt that he worked out well in his Nets tryout at HSS Training Center back in May but was surprised the team didn’t contact him. Then after going undrafted and playing in the Summer League for the Portland Trailblazers, the Nets contacted him. That, too, he said was a surprise.
Now, after signing a two-way deal with the Nets, he’s happy with how it all worked out.
“I love to talk with the guys in here,” he told the Nets director of broadcasting. “because they know I come from China. So it’s pretty hard to get here. So they took care of me. They took care of me in the locker (room). They try to make me joke, make me not feeled bored on this team. I love my teammates and my coach.”