TOKYO — Japanese basketball officials, fans and media hailed the selection of Rui Hachimura in the NBA draft, saying the move will usher in a new era for the sport in Japan.
Hachimura became the first player from Japan to get chosen in the first round of the NBA draft, taken with the No. 9 overall pick by the rebuilding Washington Wizards on Thursday (Friday, June 21, PHL time).
“The Birth of the NBA’s Hachimura, a huge step for Japan,” read the headline in the Nikkansports newspaper’s online edition.
The 6’8,” 235-pound (2.03 meters, 106 kilogram) forward averaged a team-leading 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds last season as a junior at U.S. college Gonzaga, where he was the West Coast Conference player of the year.
The only other Japanese player drafted in NBA history was Yasutaka Okayama, who went 171st overall in 1981. He never appeared in a regular-season game, something just two players from the country have done: Yuta Tabuse for the Phoenix Suns in 2004-05, and Yuta Watanabe for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2018-19.
“The fact that Hachimura, a product of the Japanese basketball system, has been selected in the NBA draft makes us very proud,” said the Japan Basketball Federation’s Yuko Mitsuya.
While it has grown in popularity with the introduction of a pro league in 2005, basketball still lags far behind baseball and soccer in Japan.
Hachimura’s NBA career is sure to help the sport grow in leaps and bounds.
The son of a Japanese mother and father from the Republic of Benin, Hachimura is the latest Japanese of mixed race to make a splash in the sporting world following the likes of Naomi Osaka and Yu Darvish. (Jim Armstrong, Associated Press)
