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LAS VEGAS — A few hours before Yuta Watanabe’s mother and father are set to fly back to Japan, he wades through the crowds in the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and takes a seat inside a restaurant. There’s no game today, but he’s wearing a Brooklyn Nets black-and-white warmup shirt even though his teammates have been spotted walking around the lobby in hipster clothes. He’s saving his appetite for the farewell meal with his parents, but his agency’s public-relations director has ordered cheese pizza for the table and, because a lunchtime interview is on the schedule, Watanabe doesn’t want to be rude. He nibbles on one slice.
“Just being a basketball player,” says Watanabe, 23. “It’s not only about basketball. It’s about doing media.”
Watanabe understands all of this — representing his team like a professional in public and taking time to break bread with a reporter when there are more pressing matters on his mind — comes with being in the NBA. It’s a job he wants badly, as do his Japanese fans who watch his highlights on YouTube and followed him to Las Vegas to watch him play in the NBA Summer League.
“He says he’ll never give up,” says longtime fan So Seyama, closing his eyes and pumping his fist, “until he’ll be an NBA player. I already believe in him.”
The 6-foot-9 Watanabe played four years at George Washington and now aims to become the second Japanese player to make the NBA. The time in Vegas has placed him tantalizingly close to this goal. In his debut against the Orlando Magic, Watanabe, who was the 2017-18 Atlantic 10 defensive player of the year, stuffed the sixth pick in last month’s draft, Mohamed Bamba, at the rim. He finished his summer league run with eight blocks.
“People don’t really care about basketball” in Japan, Watanabe said. But his fans still devour his YouTube clips and travel to watch him play. (Joe Buglewicz/For The Washington Post)
Although the Nets lost their four games and dropped out of the tournament Wednesday, Watanabe averaged 9.8 points on 40.6 percent shooting and 5.3 rebounds. The Japanese contingent believed they were witnessing history.
“We’re big fans, and it’s really important for him to be the second Japanese NBA player,” says Ayumi Koyama, who spent about $1,000 to travel from Washington to Vegas for Watanabe’s games.
During the Nets-Magic matchup, Yukio Tanaka only put down his beer to hold his sign written in kanji and hiragana that translated to “Fly, Yuta.” He shared no regrets on the financial burden of watching Watanabe.
“We should spend money for what we love,” Tanaka says.
But this was only summer league. It wasn’t the actual thing Watanabe grew up dreaming about in the countryside of the prefecture of Kagawa, in the northeast of Shikoku Island. While Watanabe is grateful for the excitement from Japanese fans and embraces the hero status from his homeland, becoming an NBA player still hangs in the balance. He’s waiting to learn whether he’ll get an invite to Nets training camp. Then, he still would have to make the 15-man roster for the regular season.