Five months after bidding farewell to the NBA due to psychological problems, on January 9, 2021, Yamura returned.
From the night of his return to the present, Japan's biggest athlete is still secretive about the reason for his sudden departure, just silently playing, as if he has lost the shadow of his expressive function.
As of February 9, exactly one month has passed, he has played a total of 14 games, 2 seasons since entering the NBA League, 110 games (including 5 playoffs) are all starting small forwards, all 14 of which are as substitutes;
He also averaged just 17.9 minutes per game, contributing only 7.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.2 steals in the corresponding stats.
Feeling better? He just said lightly —
OK
The real inner feeling, not to mention outsiders, is that washington wizards' teammates, coaching staff and management team members are not convenient to ask in person, but the good feeling of Japanese basketball, which has lasted until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, must be slightly frustrated.
Editor-in-chief | Porcelain Responsible editor| Wangwang Visual | Caixin
Just as the city of Washington and the basketball club's name, from bullet to wizard, always reveals a vague sense of ferocity and foreboding, the experience of this season has always been so unpredictable, with the sudden absence of Hachimura before the opening season, the high ranking of the team after the opening season, and then the injury of the core bradley Beale and the slowly becoming a mediocre team, on February 9, Beal announced that his 2021-2022 season was reimbursed in advance.
The chain reaction is where is the second stop in the career of this scoring guard?
And --
For the rest of the season and beyond, can we use Dinwiddie or Yamura as core bait to replace other teams with temporary on-court leaders?
Such an analysis comes from ESPN veteran writer Kevin Pelton — unfortunately, it was only then that the American media thought of Hachimura;
Fortunately, such an analysis indirectly proves that Japanese basketball stars are still valuable – presumably Jeremy Lin's experience in the NBA has given Chinese fans a deep understanding of the fierce competition in the world's top league.
Only did not analyze how he will replace the core of the team.
Now, the whole team has immediate combat power and training value, that is, Kyle Kuzma, although Los Angeles has proved that he is not a qualified product; it is not the turn of Hachimura, since applying for temporary abstinence from washington wizard training, competitions and other activities for personal reasons, the orthodox American media adhering to the political tradition has become accustomed to Hachimura's absence, sharp decline in status, and taciturnity.
In the 5 months of hanging up the exemption card, he was like evaporating in the world, Washington was silent about his affairs, and the American media peers spent a lot of effort and only came out of Kuzma's big mouth a few words -
Psychological problems
Kerry Irving and Ben Simmons have similar problems in front of them, and the two have suddenly changed the overall pattern of the league, and the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76, which were once considered to be the favorite to win the championship, are in trouble and are in a quagmire, and have not yet come up with the ideal solution.
"If the 2019 Lotto show Hachimura is still valuable, considering that the 24-year-old hasn't made much progress since he was named to the 2nd Team of all-rookie, it may make sense to trade him."
Pelton said.
Of course, Japanese fans can't blame Pelton, after all, even if Irving and Simmons-level stars have similar problems, the first reaction of experts is to trade, one is to dump the baggage, the other is to change the environment, and perhaps the psychological problems will naturally heal.
However, Hachimura himself had nothing to express, and he wasn't even sure if he chose to go with the flow.
The American media also showed great tolerance and understanding for Hachimura's silence — because he was Japanese, there were very different cultural differences between Japan and the United States.
In the United States, Hachimura's identity is only a rookie in the first round, an ordinary star; but in Japan, his identity has expanded from a basketball player to a well-known public figure in Japan, the standard-bearer of the Japanese delegation to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and even the instant noodle packaging box has his portrait printed...
When it comes to Hachimura, the academic circles in the United States and Japan also have very different attitudes, and Rick Burton, a professor of sports management at Syracuse University, is in the American culture and discourse system, and he is naturally walking on thin ice:
"When you have an internationally renowned athlete it's not saying — I have to be very careful with my wording — it's not that we're going to look at him by the same double standards as schizophrenia, it's that we have to realize that different cultures are different." Japan is not the United States, and different countries have different views, acceptances, and perspectives on the same thing. ”
According to the analysis of the Us media, in Japan, athletes are the spokesmen of asceticism, advocating inner tenacity, indifference, and peace, and if any athlete has psychological problems, it will be a great shame that is difficult to say.
Affected by this, Japanese society attaches very little importance to mental health, and the investment in mental health resources is also very scarce, in this regard, Masami Mikawa, an expert in sports psychology at Kansai Gakuin University in Japanese culture and discourse system, believes that:
"Japanese society embraces perfectionism, and it is difficult for athletes who are in a difficult situation on a cultural level to get the opportunity to express themselves. Hachimura is a mixed-race child who does not conform to the traditional strict sense of pure Japanese, which makes him face additional pressure from online violence and discrimination. ”
"Stress is not necessarily a bad thing, but on a cultural level, the Japanese believe that individuals can accomplish everything, and perfectionism is a virtue, so we expect and praise individuals who achieve extraordinary things on their own and do not cause trouble for others."
In short, the Japanese's entrenched evaluation system applies equally to Hachimura.
If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight
As the first NBA rookie in Japanese history, Yamura's commercial value after joining the wizard has risen steadily, and big brands such as AJ, NEC, Nissin, casio and so on have thrown olive branches, and according to Forbes statistics, Hachimura's endorsement income in his rookie year has exceeded 10 million US dollars.
Hachimura has given himself a vacation because of psychological problems, and psychological recuperation is necessary;
But his problems were, after all, psychological, not the kind of problems Kobe Bryant had when he was young in Eagle County, Colorado, and the nature of the two was completely different, so the manufacturers he endorsed did not take holidays, and his partners cared more than anyone when he would come back, including the Washington wizards.
This invisibly increased the stress and anxiety of The Eight Villages. If I think about it in a different way, I've let my country down, I've disappointed my sponsors, I've disappointed my teammates, and I've got to take care of myself first. But from agents to sponsors, from coaches to general managers, everyone keeps calling and asking, 'Hey, are you getting better?' Can you come back and play? ’”
"In your own life, in your own career, when do you have the right to say, 'Fuck the challenge, fuck the pressure, fuck the media exposure, I'm just going to leave for a while, because I'm not going to be good all the time anymore!'"
Through the scene replacement of psychology, Burton described the situation of Hachimura as a cultural chaos stew of the pressure cooker, for which neither the public relations company nor the sports marketing company could come up with a mature and effective operating manual.
His Fellow Japanese, too, did—
Naomi Osaka, a female tennis player who was once no. 1 in the WTA and the first Grand Slam winner in Japan, suddenly announced her withdrawal from the French Open on May 31, 2021, saying that she has been plagued by psychological depression for a long time since the 2018 US Open, and now she has to say goodbye to the court temporarily;
During the temporary absence of tennis, Naomi Osaka never shied away from her predicament, often updated her own dynamics for fans on social media, and even made a special Netflix documentary, and then came back, not only representing Japan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and reaching the third round of women's tennis singles, but also serving as the main torchbearer of the opening ceremony.
Hachimura and Naomi Osaka are both Japanese, both mothers are Japanese women and fathers are African American, but their upbringing is just the opposite direction:
Naomi Osaka grew up in the United States, and by the time her talent was fulfilled and her teenage fame, the mental health problems of athletes had received great attention in the United States, and then, as a Japanese, she fought all over the world;
Hachimura grew up in Japan and became famous as a teenager, but he really proved himself by joining the Washington Wizards and reaching the playoffs as a starter, and after that, his main battle in addition to the Olympic Games was the NBA.
From this path, it is not difficult to understand his current silence.
But in today's NBA, the psychological problems are fully understood, and Washington is also unconditionally supportive of Yamura, in the words of head coach Wes Unseld:
"The whole process is completely in step with Hachimura. He said he would come back whenever he wanted, and we worked together a comeback schedule a few weeks ago, and although the pandemic delayed his comeback, it was not a surprise. He's ready is the most important thing. For now, everything is going well. ”
Bradley Beal has officially been out of the game since February 1, and it is also this game, Hachimura's playing time this season has reached 20+ for the first time, the previous 10 games are at most 19 minutes and 50 seconds, the minimum is 12 minutes and 27 seconds; the next three consecutive games are 19 minutes 05 seconds, 23 minutes 57 seconds, 26 minutes 37 seconds, it seems that the core absence has accelerated the pace of his return.
This is a good trend.
This is a good trend for both the Japanese men's basketball team and the opponents of the Japanese men's basketball team - low-level competition has no benefit to the overall development of Asian basketball.
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