TORONTO -- NBA Finals media day kicked off Wednesday morning at the Scotiabank Arena. It's a chaotic situation where players are outnumbered 50-to-1 by media members from across the globe.
Surrounded by cameras and microphones, players field a litany of questions, many of which tie one team or one player to the opposition.
Jeremy Lin sat in hot seat for a good 15 minutes and gave insightful answers. He got his start during the 2010-11 season with the Golden State Warriors and he's prepared to face them in the Finals as a member of the Toronto Raptors.
While Lin played just 29 games with the Warriors in his lone year in Oakland, a moment late in the season with Stephen Curry stuck with him.
"I don't know what our record was, but we weren't great that year I was there," Lin said. "After 81 games, he had gone through ankle injury after ankle injury after ankle injury and we were literally going into game 82, the last game, and he rolled his ankle the game before."
Curry struggled with ankle injuries throughout his young career in Oakland. He missed eight games in his sophomore campaign and played just 23 during the 2011-12 season, mostly due to ankle issues.
"Everyone was like, ‘don't play, we're not playing for anything. You're risking it. You've already injured your ankle a bunch of times,'" Lin remembered.
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With the Warriors sitting at 35-46 coming into the final game and Curry likely on the bench, Lin was excited for the opportunity to not only play, but to pick up his first NBA start. He showed up to the arena planning to suit up and play major minutes, but Curry put a crimp in the plan.
"I was like, ‘what?,'" Lin recounted. "He had just rolled his ankle. I didn't know he was healthy enough. He had to play through a lot of pain, but the fact that he actually did that - swollen ankle, game 82, and just got out there on the floor against everyone's suggestion?"
Curry would go on to score 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and dish out nine assists in 24 minutes of action. The Warriors blew out the Portland Trail Blazers to pick up their 36th win.
"I was like, this dude loves the game and he cares about it and he doesn't take it for granted, even in that situation," Lin added.
Lin came off the bench to chip in 12 points, dish out five assists and grab five rebounds in 24 minutes.
While Curry vaguely remembered the situation. He likely couldn't give a number as to how many times he rolled an ankle, but Lin left a strong impression on him as well.
"My impression of him was just how hard he worked on the daily in practice, challenging me, challenging the guards that we had, Klay, in terms of trying to make us better and establish himself as an NBA player," Curry said. "Like most of the world, my favorite thing about him is his perseverance."
It's possible that Curry and Lin will see court time against each other this week. Lin has played in seven games during the postseason for the Raptors, while Curry is having perhaps his strongest playoff run to date.
