Joseph Lin is smaller, younger and has not reached the same heights as his older and more famous sibling Jeremy, but his confidence remains firmly intact.
Growing up in California, the pair and eldest brother Joshua played all variations of basketball like Twenty-one and Horse at street courts and open gyms. After church, they would routinely compete until 2am.
In an exclusive e-mail interview with The Straits Times, Joseph recounts those childhood days: "We did everything together. I would say growing up I couldn't really compete with them. They were much bigger than I was, which was frustrating but it made me better for sure. Josh was lightning quick and Jeremy was a bit of everything.
"I'm the shooter of the family. I definitely think I was the best shooter."
The 27-year-old is a point guard with the Taipei Fubon Braves and competes in the Asean Basketball League (ABL).
Jeremy, 31, became an international star in 2012 during his time with the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and currently plays for the Beijing Ducks in the China Basketball Association (CBA). Joshua, 34, is a certified paediatric dentist.
Joseph, at 1.83m and 69kg, admits he is not "gifted physically, even for an Asian" but after working "extremely hard to compete at every level", he now feels like he "belongs" as a high-level professional basketball player.
He has the credentials to back up this belief. Since signing for the Braves in 2015, he became a four time All-Star in Taiwan's Super Basketball League, which the Braves won last year before joining the ABL. He is a key member of this team alongside imports Maxie Esho and former NBA star O.J. Mayo.
In their debut ABL season, Joseph posted averages of 8.5 points, 3.2 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game before the 10-team league was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: "Being on the court with three imports at a time definitely added its pressure but I enjoyed it as well. I felt like I was going to hit my stride and have a strong finish to the regular season and especially into play-offs."
Besides impressive speed, dribbling, and finishing, he also displayed a healthy dose of realism. While playing in the NBA is out of the question, he believes he has what it takes to be an ABL-winning Local Most Valuable Player and establish himself in the CBA.
Based in Taipei, Joseph is making use of the enforced downtime to do some extra lifting to become stronger and more explosive next season. He is also a huge gamer who streams himself playing Call of Duty and Dota 2 on Twitch on his joelinsta21 channel.
The American remembers clearly when Linsanity struck in 2012 as Jeremy was promoted to the Knicks starting line-up and led them to a seven-game winning streak and to the play-offs.
Joseph was playing in NCAA Division III for Hamilton College - a five-hour train ride from New York City - at the time. He recalled the joy among his teammates as they watched the Knicks play on a projector and Jeremy made the winning bucket, incidentally against the Toronto Raptors, with whom Jeremy won the title last year.
Joseph said: "None of us could have ever predicted that this would happen. Everything hit so fast and Jeremy (and our family) was just thrown into fame overnight. None of us knew how to deal with it.
"My parents were constantly bombarded with interviews from every outlet imaginable. My grandmother was getting harassed by local media in Taiwan, they were trying to do anything to get part of the story."
The 1.91m, 91kg Jeremy would eventually get his hands on the coveted ring last year, although he played just one minute of Toronto's 4-2 victory over the Golden State Warriors. It was also a little bittersweet as he was not picked up by another NBA team after that.
Later, he broke down in front of an audience on Christian station Good TV, as he felt "in some ways the NBA has given up on me".
Joseph said: "For his journey to go through so many ups and downs, maybe more downs, is very frustrating because so many things were out of his control. I'll always say he was built to be an All-Star at some point in the NBA but circumstances and injuries prevented that."
He hopes an on-court reunion in China with Jeremy could materialise.
He said: "Us playing in the CBA, whether as teammates or opponents, is the most probable outcome. We talk about it often. Right now though, winning an ABL championship is on my mind."
