Jeremy Lin '10 was cut by the Golden State Warriors not long after the end of the NBA lockout, but about a day later, he found a new home with the Houston Rockets.

New number, new team, new season.

A lot has changed over the past few months for former Harvard basketball star Jeremy Lin ’10.

But one thing has remained the same: Lin's fight to make it in the NBA continues to be an uphill battle.

Lin left Harvard as one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award for the nation’s best point guard and as the only player in Ivy League history to record 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists, and 200 steals.

He went undrafted, but caught on with the Dallas Mavericks’ summer league team. One standout performance against No. 1 overall pick John Wall later, Lin had signed a three-year endorsement deal with Nike and had the ability to choose his NBA destination from a number of offers.

The Palo Alto, Calif. native picked the Golden State Warriors, his hometown squad and his favorite team growing up. In the blink of an eye, he had a two-year contract and was living the dream.

“It was unbelievable,” Lin recalls. “Everything happened so fast; looking back it’s like a blur. I just remember it was obviously really fun to play in the summer league and then to all of a sudden sign with the hometown team was definitely very exciting. I was thankful I got to do that.”

But from there, Lin’s rookie year was a roller coaster of highs and lows.

In his third career game, he played 16 minutes and had four steals while scoring his first NBA points against the defending champion Lakers. A fan favorite, Lin notched a career-high 13 points in 18 minutes against L.A. a month later. And he finished the year on a high note, registering 12 points, five rebounds, and five assists in the Warriors’ final game of the season against the Blazers.

But in between was a struggle for the rookie, who had a hard time finding playing time and was thrice sent down to the NBA Developmental League. Though he shined there for the Reno Bighorns—averaging over 20 points per game and being named to the All-NBA D-League Showcase First Team—the constant change was not easy on Lin.

“It was just a tough year,” he says. “Not knowing where I was going to be, going up and down to the D-League—it was tough. But in the end, I got better. I think that was the most important thing. It was a learning experience, and it showed me what I needed to work on and what the holes in my game and areas of improvement were.”

With the NBA lockout stretching into December, Lin had an extended amount of time to focus on those holes. That he did, while also taking the time to rest a knee injury he had suffered during the season. He thus calls the lockout “a blessing in disguise” because it gave him more time to recover.

But in addition to working hard, Lin also had some fun as well. He recorded a number of popular YouTube videos, such as “How to Get into Harvard” and “Jeremy Lin: A Day in the Life.” And though he couldn’t play in NBA games, Lin did partake in two charity exhibitions with some of the league's best players.

First, on Nov. 5, he joined Stephen Curry, David Lee, and the rest of his Warrior “Young Dubs” teammates at Oracle Arena to challenge the 2007 “We Believe” Warriors squad—featuring Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, and Jason Richardson, among others—which famously knocked off the heavily favored No. 1-seeded Mavericks in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

Two weeks later, Lin returned to Lavietes Pavilion to take part in the Boston Charity Classic along with Paul Pierce, Rudy Gay, Rajon Rondo, and a host of other NBA stars in his first game back on Harvard’s campus.