Yuta Watanabe's body shape is like a goalkeeper on the soccer field, he is a rebounder who fights aggressively, defends well, actively defends his teammates, is fearless even if he is facing the best rookie of the year, in addition to defending, he is also trying to improve his offensive ability, his shooting feel is good, last season's three-point shooting rate was 40%, basket shooting rate was 60%, and he already has his place in the NBA.
With the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Yuta Watanabe will compete for the Japanese men's basketball team with another Japanese NBA player; forward Hachimura Lei, who plays for the Washington Wizards, fortunately, japan has no performance requirements for the Japanese men's basketball team led by Yuta Watanabe and Hachimura, and no one expects the world's lowest-ranked basketball team in the Olympic Games to win medals, let alone gold medals, and Japanese fans will have an attitude of appreciation and learning to watch the team games easily.
Although there is no performance pressure, but the performance of Yuta Watanabe and Yamura at the Olympic Games will have a more far-reaching significance, to build something sustainable for the development of Japanese basketball, the exemplary power of success will help the continued development of the sport in Japan, in fact, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games may become the starting point of the Milestone of Japanese Basketball.
As we all know, in the entire history of basketball development in the world, there are Americans and Europeans dominating the NBA, Asian players are not common in the history of the NBA, there are only great Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin who has a brief shining moment, which shows that Asian athletes do not have the strength to enter the top leagues in the United States or Europe, which will not prevent Asians from pursuing basketball dreams, but it will certainly have a major blow to the confidence of players.
In addition to Yuta Watanabe and Yamura, can you name a Japanese NBA player? The first Japanese player to be selected, Yasunaka Okayama (eighth round in 1981) and Yamura (first round in 2019), were nearly 40 years apart, and in those long forty years there was yuta Takuya in addition to Yuta Watanabe, who briefly played four games for the Phoenix Suns in 2004, and he was the first Japanese player to play in the NBA.
The Japanese men's basketball team to participate in the Olympic Games is an important step to promote the development of basketball in the country, Japanese basketball ranked 42nd in fiba, they have not participated in the Olympic Games since 1976, even this time as the host country directly participated, the goal of the Japan Basketball Association is: to participate in the Olympic Games become the norm, the key to achieving this goal is to increase youth participation, continue to cultivate young basketball talents, the sport as a high-future career.
In the past two years, because of the above two NBA players, the whole of Japan has increased the attention to basketball, in fact, as early as 1990 because of the boom of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the god of basketball Jordan and the NBA swept the world, when the participation in basketball in Japan reached a peak, many Young Japanese people embarked on the basketball road because of Jordan, but when Jordan retired, people lost interest in basketball, although the NBA also appeared Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and other stars, But Japan is not obsessed with them.
Until the past two years due to Yuta Watanabe and Yamura, basketball ratings began to soar in Japan, many well-known Japanese companies have increased the production of basketball products, there are more and more commercial brands to cooperate with basketball players, Yuta Watanabe's jersey is the best-selling basketball jersey in Japan, Yamura Tsutomu cooperates with internationally renowned sports brands, and has its own name brand of sneakers.
While the sale of basketball apparel and merchandise is important to the development of the sport, especially in terms of increasing player visibility, the eventual success of the Japanese basketball revival led by Yuta Watanabe and Yamura will depend on whether Japan can systematically cultivate more basketball talent in the future, and the United States and Spain have the top teams, healthy finances, and the most successful professional leagues, and their success is no coincidence.
The B League is the Japanese Basketball Professional League, which was founded in 2016 by the merger of the independently operated BJ League and the FIBA-operated NBL (National Basketball League), and in 2014, because of the existence of two first-tier leagues in Japan, NBL and BJ, it was finally banned by FIBA, and under the pressure of FIBA, the two leagues eventually joined forces to form a more powerful domestic entity.
Worldwide, the B-League is not a top-tier league, but it does offer Japanese players a salary package that can be sustained, and it has also attracted the attention of American scouts, and more importantly, its successful operation has allowed many young Japanese basketball players who may have given up their basketball dreams to continue to pursue their dreams without leaving Japan.
We can see this in the lineup of the Japanese men's national basketball team, although there are some Japanese players who play in the Australian or American development leagues, but players like Tomoki Tomiken, Shin Hieshima, and Kosuke Kanamaru all play in the Japanese league, and they already have the strength to enter the national team list.
Led by the NBA duo of Yuta Watanabe and Yamura, plus Japanese native talents, they will compete against the top opponents in international basketball every night, and perhaps they will not stand on the podium at the end of the game, but their spirit will set an example for the next generation of Japanese players, and this national international competition is more influential than the game between Yuta Watanabe and Yamura in the NBA.
Time will tell how much influence this Year's Japanese players will ultimately have at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and for Japanese basketball supporters, they are thrilled with the endless possibilities ahead!