SAN FRANCISCO — When Valkyries’ rookie point guard Kaitlyn Chen first saw Jeremy Lin, she wasn’t rooting for him.

Chen, a Pasadena native, was in third grade when she watched Lin torch her hometown Los Angeles Lakers for 38 points during the height of the Palo Alto High alum’s “Linsanity” run.

But looking back on that moment, Chen has a deep appreciation for Lin’s impact on her and the rest of the Asian American basketball community.

“He represented that underdog story,” Chen told the Bay Area News Group before Sunday’s game against the Indiana Fever. “I feel like he has been someone that Asian American athletes are able to look up to. There really aren’t a lot of Asian American role models out there, so for him to sort of be that person was just super inspiring.”

Lin, 37, announced hi

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