Rui Hachimura was drafted by the Washington Wizards in the first round of the NBA Draft recently. Hachimura is from Toyama, but his predecessor, the first Japanese player to be drafted by the NBA, is from Kumamoto. This article doesn’t mention Yasutaka Okayama’s roots in Kumamoto but it’s noted on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasutaka_Okayama
Note Okayama’s height: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m), which is very, very big, even for the NBA. In fact, Okayama was the tallest person ever to be drafted to play in the NBA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_players_in_National_Basketball_Association_history
Hachimura is a mere 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) – only an inch or two above the NBA average. ;)
https://www.nba.com/news/survey_height_2007.html
At 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), I would have been a relatively little guy in the NBA if I had had the talent to play there.
By the way, Hachimura speaks good English. I learned from a news report that this is not an accident of birth. When he decided at an early age that he wanted to aim for the NBA, he began studying English each night after basketball practice.
Congratulations to Rui Hachimura! I’m looking forward to following your career. :)
– Kirk
