CAMBRIDGE (WordNews.org) Feb. 16, 2012 – New York Knick sensation Jeremy Lin had a strong faith on the Harvard campus and a passion for daily Bible study, weekly small group meetings and telling his teammates about Christ, according to his InterVarsity mentor, Adrian Tam.

Lin, who recently set an NBA record with the most points scored in his first five starts with 136 points, was involved with the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Christian Fellowship.

Adrian Tam, who was an HRAACF Campus Staff Member when Lin was on campus, wrote: “Jeremy was in the spotlight at Harvard before he was in the spotlight in the NBA, He showed that Asian Americans could be leaders, they could be athletic, and they could be bold and open about their faith in a winsome way.”

Lin and Tam met regularly and read such books as “Too Busy Not to Pray.”

“He loved his roommates, spending lots of intense one-on-one time with them, leading investigative Bible studies with them, and just plain hanging out with them,” Tam said.

InterVarsity provided a link of Lin’s testimony [below], given June 10, 2011, in which he describes how he’d entered the NBA through a series of events that he said had everything to do with God.

It sounds familiar to how he came to be a starter on the Knicks.

But Lin said once he made the NBA, he struggled, to the point where he was playing behind players who were not even on the team during practice. And he only played in games where his team was either winning or losing by 20 points. He started to lack confidence.

“I lost my joy, my passion, my purpose in basketball,” he said. The NBA lifestyle, the paycheck, the fame, all were not fulfilling.

“Happiness was depending on how well I played,” he said. Then, Lin began to realize: “This is becoming an idol for me. I need to start trusting God more.”

He said those who knew his entire testimony would be surprised to hear such a confession because “His fingerprints are all over my story.”

Examples: His parents move from Taiwan to America in 1977 (when his dad fell in love with basketball), he is 6-foot-3-inches tall while his parents are both 5-6. “How’d I become 6-3?” He didn’t make the Stanford team, a blessing, he says, because he received more playing time at Harvard, a program that was revamped his sophomore year.

The list goes on.