This blog site has previously alerted viewers to Yu Darvish (6'5") and Shohei Otani (6'4") from Japan. Darvish has become a prominent major league pitcher, while Otani was recently named Rookie of the Year in the American League.
Now comes Rui Hachimura (6'8") of Toyama, and now Gonzaga University. They all have Japanese mothers, but Yu's father is from Iran and Rui's father is from Benin, a tiny country in Africa.
Yesterday on Maui #3 Gonzaga beat #1 Duke 89-87 in an epic battle of the two most exciting NCAA basketball players this year, Hachimura and Zion Williamson. Duke has four starting freshmen, and all are incredible. Rui is now a junior, but has suddenly become the talk of college basketball.
Read about how Rui got to Gonzaga. In any case, he will be the star of Japan's olympics team when Tokyo hosts in 2020. First, they need to qualify. They do have a few other worthy players:
- Naturalized-citizen Nick Fazekas (6'11") was born in Japan, and became three-time player of the year at the University of Nevada. He is now 33 years old,
- Yuta Watanabe (6'9", right)) plays for the Memphis Grizzlies and was the first real Japanese player to secure an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship, from George Washington University. He last year was defensive player of the year in the Atlantic 10 conference.
- Hyu Watanabe is 6'9" tall and plays for the University of Portland. He is otherwise known as Hugh Hogland, who graduated from Iolani High School in Hawaii.
- Tahirou Diabate, also from the University of Portland, is 6'10", born in Mali (Africa) and shows potential. He has scored 101 points in a game.
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