Jeremy Lin fined $1,400 by CBA for showing shabby gym in isolation hotel on Instagram

Chinese-American athlete Jeremy Lin (林书豪 Lín Shūháo), who is currently playing for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), has been fined 10,000 yuan ($1,420) for sharing on social media a video of him complaining about a hotel gym, which the league said was “inappropriate” and had caused negative perceptions about the CBA.

The clip was posted to Lin’s personal Instagram account on November 30. In an Instagram “story”, the 34-year-old basketball player showed gym facilities at an unidentified location he was staying, which consisted of “1 bench press, 1 squat rack, 2 random benches,” he wrote.

“You won’t believe this weight room. This is what the bubble life looks like,” Lin said while giving the tour. “Where am I? What is this trash? Oh boy.”

Although the video wasn’t intended to be seen by the CBA or the Chinese public (Instagram is blocked in China, and Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours), it took no time for Lin’s complaint to make its way to Chinese social media, where people who knew tools to bypass the Great Firewall downloaded the clip and reposted it, and it is still online on Weibo. The video eventually caught the attention of Chinese sports officials.

According to Lin’s description, the video was filmed inside the “bubble,” an enclosed environment created by the CBA to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But in its announcement of the punishment for Lin, the league stressed that the player was actually staying at a regular hotel to fulfill the quarantine period required by the local government of Zhuji, a city south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, implying that the association shouldn’t be blamed for the inadequate equipment Lin showed in his video.

“Lin made some inappropriate remarks on social media about some facilities in a quarantine hotel,” the league wrote in the statement released today. “This behavior has violated certain CBA rules and caused negative perceptions of the tournament and its host city.”

The 2022-23 CBA season kicked off on October 10 behind closed doors in a COVID bubble in Hangzhou. The tournament started without fans in attendance for the third consecutive season. But in November, after the league went on a hiatus for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, the games entered the second phase of the season, where teams are allowed to venture out of the bubble for games and a certain level of normalcy is restored, albeit that players still need to follow local COVID-19 rules when traveling.

On Weibo, opinions are divided over whether the penalty imposed on Lin was warranted. While some internet users supported the decision, saying that Lin needs to be more adaptable and tolerant of the inconvenience caused by COVID-19 control measures in China, others came to Lin’s offense, arguing that it’s in his right as a CBA player to criticize what he saw as mismanagement on the league’s part.

“What a classic Chinese way to make grumbles go away! If they can’t solve the problem, they need to solve the person who raised the problem, ” a Weibo user wrote, while another one commented, “Let’s hope that the CBA will actually use the money to improve workout facilities for its athletes.”

As the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Jeremy Lin became a breakout star after putting on a series of great performances in the 2011-12 NBA season, sparking a cultural phenomenon that transformed him into a symbol for Asian American excellence called “Linsanity.” In 2019, he left the American league to sign with the Beijing Ducks and went on to play for the Guangzhou Loong Lions during the 2022-23 CBA season.