Hey there, I'm Stephen Dubner, and this is a Freakonomics Radio Extra, our full conversation

with NBA Point Guard Jeremy Lin. Because the new NBA season has just begun. We interviewed

Lin for our ongoing Hidden Side of Sports series in an earlier episode, number 351, which

was called, Here's Why You Are Not An Elite Athlete. We heard how Lin was overlooked

out of high school and college. At least to some degree because, as an Asian American

kid, he didn't look the part of an NBA player. Nor did it help that he played his college

ball at Harvard, which is not a basketball powerhouse, but he exploded onto the world's

sports stage in 2012 and what came to be known as Lin's sanity, leading the New York

Knicks to multiple victories and putting up a personal stats line that would make a superstar

happy. Lin is now with the Atlanta Hawks, his seventh team in nine seasons. He's no longer

a starter. He is, however, in the third and final year of a $38 million contract. We spoke

a few days ago. Lin had come straight from practice.

Hey Jeremy, this is Stephen Dubner. Can you hear me? Yeah. Hey, nice to meet you. How's

it going? Nice to meet you as well. So Jeremy, what would you say is one of the biggest

differences between being a professional athlete and what the average fan thinks it's like

to be a professional athlete? You know, everything. I just don't think the average fan really

understands much about what it means to be a professional athlete, to have your life

in constant scrutiny and all of the pressures. I mean, you have to think, yeah, every athlete

is obviously making a lot of money, but how many people are trying to pull and pry and

the tug and pull of the different pressures at each and every single person in that person's

life. And a lot of people that you love dearly, you have to say no to constantly or you have

to set up boundaries for yourself because everyone wants something from you. And that's

...