TAIPEI, Taiwan(AP) -- The first Taiwanese-American signed by an
NBA team hopes to overcome the negative stereotype of playing
college basketball at Harvard and plans on eventually becoming a
minister in an inner-city neighborhood.

Jeremy Lin, a 6-foot-3 undrafted point guard, signed last week
with the Golden State Warriors after impressing coaches at the
NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

In five outings with the Dallas Mavericks, the soft-spoken
21-year-old native of Palo Alto, Calif., averaged 9.8 points and
3.2 rebounds per game.

Lin arrived in Taipei early Wednesday to appear at a charity
event with other NBA players and Taiwanese celebrities.

At a downtown press conference he acknowledged that his NBA
career path was far from common, but insisted he could still
succeed.

"Coming out of college into the draft, being Asian-American and
being from Harvard, that's not going to be an advantage because
of stereotypes," he said.

He told reporters that religion is a major part of his life and
where he saw his eventual destiny.

"I still want to be a pastor somewhere down the line, that is
something that is definitely on my radar," he said. "I have an
economics degree with a minor in sociology. The reason I have
that is because I want to do a ministry in urban areas and help
with underprivileged kids."

Lin said his family supported his passion for basketball despite
receiving criticism from some Asian-Americans that he didn't
study enough.

"My dad was the one who really loved basketball and he was the
one that put the basketball in my hands, and my mom was 'Team
Mom' of all my teams," he said. "I used to play for three or
four teams at once and she would just spend her entire afternoon
driving me from practice to practice to practice."