RUI HACHIMURA Feature - BIG IN JAPAN

Rui In Translation. 

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

2020 was supposed to be the one like Vanessa Bryant for Bean. The roaring return of the 20's like Gatsby a century later, old sport. Tokyo, Japan itself was set to host the 2020 Olympic Games this Summer and this Englishman in Yokohama, lost in translation came here this year after calenders of dreams about it. Especially to teach and write about Basketball under the cauldron which had also introduced a 3x3 tournament to the streets. But then January happened and we lost Kobe, GiGi and so many more to that truly tragic helicopter crash and cruelly it still doesn't seem real months later. Just like masks still on the Coronavirus that has not only crippled things on court, in cinemas and businesses beyond entertainment, door-to-door, struggling to survive, but taken the lives of so many loved ones from us around the world. And it's still not gone. Although worth the risk many of us have taken to the streets and risked our lives, because Black Lives STILL Matter and we must protest in peace before we finally have justice. Justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor (arrest the cops) and so many more. Countless casualties of callous cruelness. Some caught on camera, others lynched in the shadows of America's dark history, hidden under a white hood. Basketball is about to return as players are about to literally be in a bubble for a winners take all tournament at Disney World, but the time to play Mickey Mouse games is done. There's bigger things at stake like Kyrie Irving and the Los Angeles Lakers' Dwight Howard and Avery Bradley know...and we're willing to risk everything we have to prove it. Basketball may be back from lockdown like it never stops came back from the lockout, but nothing can bring back the lives of those we lost to police brutality and COVID-19. Just like we can't bring back Kobe and GiGi, as much as we would give anything to do so in the worst year of our lives since the towers dropped like our hearts. We must go forward in their honour. In love over the worst disease of hate. In peace. Practicing what the real King preached.

Under the MLK monument memorial of Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States of America's nation capital of Washington D.C. just a mall's walk from the Capitol Building or the Lincoln Memorial were this man had a promised land dream, another young man, face mask hanging has his fist raised next to the Washington Wizards best backcourt in the association of John Wall and Bradley Beal like the black gloved power and history of an Olympic podium. Like the change Sam saw coming after Marvin hollered, 'What's Goin' On' like "war is not the answer". For why? In a rookie year that sees the most hyped since the first name terms of LeBron, Zion comeback in the stunted second half to show he could still take home the R.O.Y. award other big names to be have gone relatively unnoticed. Even though jumping over everything from Love to even the rafters, Ja Morant's ruling name that seems destined for there like the Hall has been putting it down. You may not know top ten rook Rui Hachimura's name yet. But you will. It's big in Japan like a James or Harden after the Rockets and the Raptors did their thing in a Tokyo double-header last fall gone. And this Small Forward may just spell a big-three for the Wall and Beal street, House of Guards, Washington Wizards who could use a rise like Phoenix with their new rising son from the land of precisely that. The Toayama born Japanese sensation is about to take to the American streets like Toyota and foot on the gas you can't stop him pedal to metal now. Faster than a speeding you know what in a David Stern and Jerry Sloan sadly passing year were Washington have lost a legend of their own in the late, great Wes Unseld, this kid with a similar afro could be the next, great legacy maker. Before taking the Harry Potter like name, the Washington Wizards used to be called the Bullets like that iconic candy striped throwback, before the city wanted to distance itself from the plauge of gun violence. But like the New Orleans Pelicans we've always thought they could use a new name. Like turning their previously dodgy looking logo into a beautiful Black Power salute which should stay raised even when people's Twitter timeliness move on to something else, because this is more than trend, but a way of life that should always be and always matter. Rui could be so big for this team before his final swan song (that is a decade at least away) like a Houston Rocket Yao Ming that you could rename this team the Washington Shinkansen's for what one day could be this future franchise famous face. And this is a team that played G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan's real last dance. Don't miss this train.

Yokohama, Japan. The Memphis Grizzlies already made Japanese history a year prior. Yuta Watanabe is his name. And his game?Worthy more of a G-League hustle. But when these two met on court last December, swapping jerseys at the end of the game like a way of Wade and holding them to the camera for their first dance, real history was made. It's a match up set for ages, everytime Tennessee is in town. But when it comes to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or even Kobe, the place Bryant was named after when Joe 'Jellybean' was so impressed with the beef, it's Hachimura's jersey that fits the sales like a Durant in the B.K., or Curry in California. Rui's name is in neon now. A great in Gonzaga. That wasn't the only time he was set to tear down nets like New Jersey to Brooklyn. This kids looks like a walking and dribbling 20 and 10 per threat already. The number 8, ninth pick, 6 foot 8, 230 pound for pound 'Zag's game is just that tall. All in all this young man could be everything to Washington and the watching world belong the rising sun as he ascends like Fuji, ready to blow. Bank on this SMBC sponsored stud to be that good...Watanabe a big name like Ken too. But this Bulldog that can power to the other forward position and in the salad of his college days won the Julius Erving Award is just the prescription the good doctor ordered with his J. The name Rui means "base" or "fortress". And although this former catcher and pitcher played a different time of ball in the end he's still going to build a foundation as traditional in its strength and permanence as a temple as he swings for the fences...or rafters. His name already carries that much weight. Now just you wait. Just read the logo behind the Tokyo of his tee in the Nike commercial with the playground of the whole city behind the second Japanese player in history to be drafted into the NBA after Yasutaka Okayama of the Golden State Warriors (and the first in the first round...ever). He's Jordan Brand. G.O.A.T. certified. Now take off the headphones and take the tablet. You want to write him off? That's fine. No problem. One day in about a year Rui Hachimura will no longer be a rookie, but an Olympian carrying the torch for his country and maybe even taking home the gold (he has the mettle for at least a medal, deserving of his podium place) as like BTS in neighbouring South Korea he will finally be big not just in the Far East of Japan...but the whole wide watching world like Osaka, Naomi. And unlike Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, that will be lost in no translation.