The NBA’s reigning champions, the Warriors, traveled to Japan and will face off against the Wizards for two preseason games.
These games, which tip off Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. JST and Sunday, Oct. 2 at 2 p.m. JST at Saitama Super Arena, will feature 24-year-old former lottery pick Rui Hachimura. In 2019, he became the first Japanese player ever selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.
Hachimura, who also plays for the Japanese national team, drew a massive crowd from reporters before his Wizards face the Warriors. It was a sight to behold and certainly provides context to Hachimura’s popularity in Japan.
The crowd to interview Rui Hachimura in Tokyo ahead of the Warriors-Wizards exhibition games is deep 👀 pic.twitter.com/BSSXyAehMh
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) September 29, 2022
Check out other angles of Hachimura’s scrum, which you can see below:
Nothin’ but love for the hometown kid 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/x71AyNIf0w
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) September 29, 2022
Last season, the Wizards and the Warriors ranked among the five most-watched teams on NBA Rakuten. They are the only NBA teams with in-language Japanese Twitter handles.
As part of the NBA Global Games, the league first began playing games in Japan in 1990. Due to COVID-19, however, the NBA hadn’t played games in Japan since 2019.
Hachimura should be fun to watch when the games begin this weekend.
