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5 Young international NBA players ready to lead their country to glory

By Charlie Spungin

SAITAMA, JAPAN - AUGUST 01: Rui Hachimura #8 of Team Japan reacts against Argentina during the second half of a Men's Basketball Preliminary Round Group C game at Saitama Super Arena on August 01, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
SAITAMA, JAPAN - AUGUST 01: Rui Hachimura #8 of Team Japan reacts against Argentina during the second half of a Men's Basketball Preliminary Round Group C game at Saitama Super Arena on August 01, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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Rui Hachimura
Rui Hachimura (Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports) /

Rui Hachimura, Japan

At age 25, Rui Hachimura is the oldest player on this list, and he’s hardly considered a young player anymore. Still, he has a long career of representing Japan in front of him. He is one of five Japanese players to ever appear in the NBA, and current Phoenix Sun Yuta Watanabe is one of the other four.

Japan is currently ranked 36th in the FIBA rankings, which sits at 6th for Asian teams. They are slightly better on the youth scene, ranked 31st (5th in Asia) winning the silver medal in the Asian Championships at both of the most recent U16 and U18 competitions. For the senior team, they have appeared in five FIBA World Cups, most recently in 2019, and are set to co-host next month. They participated in the 2020 Olympics due to their auto-qualification as hosts, but the last time they participated there before that was in 1976. They haven’t earned a medal at the FIBA Asia Cup since 1997.

Japan is solid, but essentially, they need Hachimura to help take them to the next level. When they appeared in the FIBA World Cup in 2019, they finished 31st, second to last. They went 0-5 and lost each game by an average of 26 points, including a 98-45 loss to the United States. In the 2020 Olympics, they also failed to win a game, finishing with an 0-3 record, losing by an average of 22 points, which included a 35-point beatdown by Slovenia.

Hachimura has played for Japan six times in his career with an even split between the youth team and the senior team. In all three of his youth appearances (2013 U16 Asian Championships, 2014 U17 World Cup, 2017 U19 World Cup), he averaged over 20 points for Japan. In the 2013 U16 Asian Championships, he even led Japan to the bronze medal.

For the senior team, he has appeared in the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, the 2019 World Cup itself, and the 2020 Olympics. In the Olympics, his most recent appearance in a Japanese uniform, he averaged 22.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists on a 48.5 TS%.

Here are some of his Olympic highlights:

Hachimura has announced that he will not participate in next month’s FIBA World Cup following the Lakers’ deep playoff run, as he wants to prepare for the coming NBA season with the Lakers. Japan is in the toughest World Cup group, accompanied by Australia, Germany, and Finland.

Quite frankly, it’ll be super difficult for them to win a game in the first round of group play. Still, even without Hachimura, it should be a goal of theirs to improve compared to their 2019 finish of 31st.